FUR MARKETS OF THE WORLD. 217 The prices of furs in Canada vary in different years. The following are the extreme rates in usual seasons for ordinary sizes all; 20s. to 80s. 125. Otter IOS. 75. 8s. per lb. Elk & Moose, dressed 20s. 40s. 50s.,, 150s. 150s. 600s. 3S. 2s. 6d. to 5s. The great centres of the fur trade in North America are New York, Boston, Montreal, and St. Louis; the furs are shipped to those cities from all parts of the fur-producing region, excepting the section controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, and from these cities they are distributed to the various sections of this country and Europe. The principal furs obtained on the American continent are sable, mink, musk-rat, foxes of various kinds, racoons, fisher, skunk, opossum, bear, lynx, wolf, wolverine, buffalo, badger, beaver, otter, seal, rabbit, and monkey, chinchilla, coypu. Of sables America produces about one half the supply; of mink, four-fifths; musk-rat, more than nine-tenths; of chinchilla and соури, about one-half the foxes, all of the racoon, fisher, skunk, buffalo, one-half the seal and from one-half to three-fourths of the other kinds. London is the great centre of the fur trade in racoon, beaver, mink, seal, fox, otter, musk-rat and wolves, although nearly all kinds of furs are found at the trade sales. Leipsic is a large market for the majority of furs obtained in America, and various kinds from Middle Europe, Russia, and Asia. Martens (fitch, stone and black), together with sable and ermine, are more largely dealt in than at other markets, while, as in London, almost all other kinds can be found. The rich furs of Russia are collected at Irbit, Siberia, and Nishni Novgorod, on the Volga River, where they are sold at the annual fairs. According to estimates made by experts, the total catch of a single season is about 20,000,000 skins; of these one-third are obtained in Northern 218 FURS OBTAINED IN EUROPE. Asia and North-West America, nine and a half millions in North and South America, and three and three quarter millions in Russia, Sweden, and adjoining countries. The total value of these skins is not far from £2,600,000. Among furs and skins used by the furrier are included those of the swan, penguin and grebe, and lamb skins, such as those of the white and grey lamb, the Persian lamb, and the same dyed. Of all these specimens will be found in the Collection of Animal products in the Bethnal Green Museum. France furnishes from its own territory furs and peltries of the value of over one million sterling, and imports about double that amount; one half of the quantity is used up locally, and the rest exported. Those produced locally consist of about 2,000 martens, 36,000 polecats, 4,000 otters, 100,000 weasels, 60,000 foxes, 30,000 cats, 60 millions of rabbits, 72,000 goose-skins, 100,000 lamb, 40,000 sheep, and 25,000 goats', besides a quantity of hares, bears, wolves, ermines, badgers, minks, kids, &c. It is in the governments of Archangel, Vologda, Viatka, and Perm, as well as in Nova Zembla, that the trade of the fur hunter is chiefly carried on in European Russia, to the value of about £64,000. In that part of the empire the bear, wolf, badger, fox, squirrel, and other animals are taken the skins of which fetch various prices. The produce of the chase there, however, diminishes yearly. It is Siberia and the Russian company's possessions that furnish the larger part of the furs to commerce. In Siberia certain tribes pay their taxes in furs, and as these constitute the private revenue of the Emperor, the handsomest furs by consequence are never seen in the market. Throughout the whole country furs are an object of pursuit ; sables, martens, stoats, foxes, squirrels, and ermines, are tracked and trapped by hunters. As a general rule the furs of the eastern are of better quality than those of the western provinces, but the ermines near the rivers Irkutzk, Oby, and Ishim form an exception, being of three times the value of those found beyond the river RUSSIAN FUR-TRADE WITH CHINA. 219 Lena. Still the time has not yet come for any suffering among the inhabitants in consequence of a scarcity of the animals. A large export goes on to the west; they are disposed of in Yakoutsk to the value annually of three or four hundred thousand pounds, and furs of more than twice that value are sold in a single town bordering on Chinese Tartary. It is for these furs that the Chinese barter their own produce, and create the trade of second importance to Siberia. The export trade of Russia to China was originally almost entirely confined to furs. The large quantity of Siberian furs paid to the Crown in form of tribute, and other supplies of the same article found an easy sale, not only in the interior, but in the markets of Central Europe, as well as in Persia and Turkey. But when the national costume was changed in Russia, and was replaced by that worn in the west of Europe, the supply became too large for the markets of Persia and Turkey, and the government, being an interested party, looked out for another market for its furs, which it found in the northern provinces of Mongolia and China. Besides this tribute, Siberia, however, furnishes to general commerce ermine, marten, zibeline, petitgris, and fox skins, to the value of about £32,000. The skins of the wolf, fox, marten, and sea otter, are the principal, but these are diminishing year by year. Formerly they used to obtain about 40,000 skins of different kinds yearly, now scarcely half these are obtained. To show the former extent of the trade in peltries or furs from Russia to China, it may be stated that the exports in 1837 consisted of the following number of skins: The hunting and trapping for furs give large employment to the poorer classes of Siberia, and bring in an annual value of about £160,000. There used to be exported to China, via Kiachta, from one to three millions squirrel skins, 250,000 to 300,000 cat skins, and 260,000 fox skins, besides some beaver and lynx. The beaver skins have dropped from 10,000 or 12,000 to 3,000, the squirrel skins have declined altogether. The otter skins have fallen from 20,000 to 4,000 and 5,000, the bear skins from 12,000 to 5 or 6,000, the fox skins to 15,000, the cat skins have fallen to 8 or 9,000, the lamb skins from 1,250,000 to 74,000; and the lynx from 15,000 to about 2,000. The following table was given in the French Jury Reports of the Paris International Exhibition of 1867, as an approximate estimate of the furs received in Europe from North America, Russia, and the Greenland Company. |
