APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 327 



Among the furs most abimdant in this commerce are those of the /oj?, 

 in its different species and under its different names. Its numbers were 

 noticed very early, and gave the name to the eastern group of the Aleu- 

 tians, which were called Lyssie Ostrowa, or Fox Islands. Some of its 

 furs are among the very j)recious. The most plentiful is the red, or as 

 it is sometimes called American; but this fur is not highly prized. 

 Then comes the Arctic, of little value, and of different colours, some- 

 times blue, and in full winter dress pure white, whose circumpolar home 

 is indicated by his name. The cross fox is less known, but much more 

 sought from the fineness of its fur and its colour. Its name is derived 

 from dark cruciform stripes, extending from the head to the back and 

 at right angles over the shoulders. It is now recognized to be a variety 

 of the red, from which it differs more in commercial value than in gen- 

 eral character. The black fox, which is sometimes entirely of shining 

 black with silver white at the tip of the tail, is called also the silver 

 fox, when the black hairs of the body are tipped with white. They are 

 of the same name in science, sometimes called Argentatus, although 

 there seem to be two different names, if not different values, in com- 

 merce. This variety is inore rare than the cross fox. Not more than 

 four or five are taken during a season at any one post in the fur coun- 

 tries, although the hunters use every art for this purpose. The tempta- 

 tion is great, as we are told that "its fur fetches six times the price of 

 any other fur produced in North America." Sir John Richardson, who 

 is the authority for this statement, forgot the sea-otter, of which he 

 seems to have known little. Without doubt the black fox is admired 

 for its rarity and beauty. LaHontan, the French Commander in Canada 

 under Louis XIV, speaks of its fur in his time as worth its weight in 

 gold. 



Among the animals whose furs are less regarded are the tcolvenne, 

 known in science as Gido or Glutton, and called by Buffon the quadruped 

 vulture, with a dark-brown fur, which becomes black in winter, and 

 resembles that of the bear, but is not so long nor of so much value. 

 There is also the lynx, belonging to the feline race, living north of the 

 great lakes and eastward of the Rocky Mountains, with a fur moderately 

 prized in commerce. There is also the music rat, which is abundant in 

 Russian America, as it is common on this continent, whose fur enters 

 largely into the cheaper peltries of the United States in so many different 

 ways, and with such various artificial colours, that the animal would 

 not know his own skin. 



Among inferior furs I may include that very respectable animal, the 

 black bear, reported by Cook "in great numbers and of a shiny black 

 colour." The grizzly bear is less frequent and is inferior in quality of 

 fur to all the varieties of the bear. The brown bear is supposed to be 

 a variety of the black bear. The Polar bear, which at times is a formi- 

 dable animal, leaving a foot-print in the snow 9 inches long, was once 

 said not to make an appearance west of the Mackenzie River, but he 

 has been latterly found on Behring Straits, so that he, too, is included 

 among our new population. The black bear, in himself a whole popula- 

 tion, inhabits every wooded district from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 from Carolina to the ice of the Arctic, becoming more numerous inland 

 than on the coast. Langsdorf early remarked that he did not appear 

 on the Aleutians, but on the continent, near Cook's Inlet and Prince 

 William Sound, which are well wooded. He has been found even on 

 the Isthmus of Panamd. Next to the dog he is the most cosmopolitan 

 and perhaps the most intelligent of animals, and among those of the 

 forest he is the most known, even to the nursery. His showy fur once 



