1 8 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



sixty distinct varieties of merchantable furs, and all represented 

 in the fur auction storerooms. There are skunk from Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin. There are muskrat from Chesapeake Bay and New 

 Jersey meadows and Cumberland Lake of the Far Northern Winter- 

 land. There are opossum from the South and "coon," too, from the 

 South, though the best striped darkest coon comes from the North. 

 There is mink from Hudson Bay and Athabasca, and kolinsky from 

 Japan and China, and sable from Siberia and pine marten from Brit- 

 ish Columbia, and otter from Labrador and Kamchatka, and silver 

 fox from the fox farms of Prince Edward Island and the wild lands 

 of the Far North. There is cross fox from Saskatchewan and red 

 fox from Minnesota and beaver from Northern Ontario and white 

 fox from the Arctic and blue fox from Alaska. There are Alaska 

 seals from the Commander Islands, and Japanese seals not quite so 

 good from off the Japanese Coast and a few Russian seals ranking 

 third. 



There are not more than two or three sea otter at each sale; 

 for this most beautiful of the world furs is almost extinct. Lynx 

 and badger soft as swan's down are here from Canada and the North- 

 western States. Rabbits are here in millions, chiefly from Aus- 

 tralia and Belgium. Fisher and otter — the aristocrats of the con- 

 noisseur's favorite fur — are present in a few thousand each, with 

 only a few chinchilla, squirrel in almost a million, and mole in mil- 

 lions. Call them the velvet or pansy furs. 



For three months the sorters have been at work on these furs — 

 as told elsewhere, paid #6000 and $7000 and $10,000 for three 

 months' work — putting them into as carefully graded bundles as 

 wheat buyers grade wheat, or apple buyers grade fruit. Certain 

 floors of the warehouses are given over entirely to certain furs. 

 Of the grading and sorting, a layman may not speak. It is more 

 ticklish work than awarding a prize in the Royal Academy. Some 

 of the furs are graded as to size. Some are graded as to age and 

 called kits. Then these goods are subdivided into firsts, middlings 

 and thirds. Furs not prime — taken out of season, or spoiled in 



