14 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS 



As thefe furs fetch fo great a price to the Chinefe, 

 they are feldom brought into RulTia for fale : and feve- 

 ral, which have been carried to Mofcow as a tribute, were 

 purchafed for 30 Roubles per Ikin ; and fent from 

 thence to the Chinefe frontiers, wliere they were difpofed 

 of at a very high mtereft, 



DiiFerent fpe- Thcrc arc fcvcral fpecies of Foxes, whofe fkins arc 



cies ot Foxes. 



fent from Kamtchatka into Siberia and RulTia. Of thefe 

 the principal are the black foxes, the Petfi or ArcSlie 

 foxes, the red and ftone foxes. 



The fineft black foxes are canght in different parts 

 ■of Siberia, and more commonly in the iSIorlhern regions 

 between the Rivers Lena, Indigirka, and Kovyma : the 

 black foxes found upon the remoteft Eallern iflands 

 difcovered by the Ruffians, or the Lyffie Oltrova, are not 

 fo valuable. They arc very black and large ; but the 

 coat for the moll part is as coarfe as that of a wolf. 

 The great difference in the finenefs of the fur, be- 

 tween thefe foxes and thofe of Siberia, arifes probably 

 from the following circumllances. In thofe iflands 

 the cold is not fo fevere as in Siberia ; and as 

 there is no wood, the foxes live in holes and ca- 

 verns of the rocks ; whereas in the abovementioned 

 parts of Siberia, there are large tradls of forefts in 

 which they find flielter. Some black foxes how- 



* S. R. G. V. Ill, Pallas Reife. 



7 ever 



