THE COMMON CHINCHILLA 1 97 



to be woven, citing in support of this assertion 

 the ancient Peruvian workers. Modern furriers 

 are nothing if not up-to-date, and a remarkable 

 devolopment of fancy farming was recently seen 

 in France, where attempts were made to breed 

 chinchillas for their skins. Indeed, it is said that 

 the scarcity of these animals in the English market 

 is due to this cause. Be this as it may, the present 

 writer has had repeated cause to notice how few of 

 these animals — only a pair or so every three or four 

 years — have recently been on sale in this country; 

 years ago they seem to have been abundant, no less than 

 five specimens at once having been sent on approval 

 to the London Zoological Gardens on July 31st, 1875. 

 Unfortunately the experiments in France failed; this 

 is the more regrettable since the price of a live pair 

 being about five pounds, considerable expense must 

 have been incurred in starting this novel industry. 

 It may be interesting to recall here the instance of a 

 certain would-be rich individual who during 1902-4 

 endeavoured to farm silver foxes for profit. The 

 foxes were kept on an island ; being thus safeguarded 

 by a watery barrier they required no fence. Doubt- 

 less their owner looked forward to realising a small 

 fortune. Dissipahcr in miras. An exceptionally 

 low tide having occurred without any provision 

 being made against it, the four-footed riches of the 

 fox-farmer scampered off to safety and the mainland! 



