FUR MARKETS OF WORLD 21 



1,100,000 m us krat; 1,500 silver fox; 400,000 skunk ; 34,000 lynx 

 and cat; 295,000 ermine; 1,200,000 squirrel. 



Look at the figures and compare them. 



The sale is very swift and very tense ; but it doesn't look to me 

 as if furs were decreasing. Also considering the first fur auction was 

 held in St. Louis in 1913, the first in New York in 1916, and the first 

 in Montreal in 1920, it looks as if the Fur Fairs had come back to 

 America to stay. 



What brought the Fur Fairs, or fur auctions back to America ? 



Primarily, the War ; but even if there had been no War, the 

 treaty stopping Pelagic Sealing would have forced a shift in world 

 fur markets. It will be recalled when Pelagic Sealing was stopped 

 that the American Government took hold of the care and manage- 

 ment and preservation of seal life on the Pribilof Islands. In order 

 to preserve the female life and the pup life, it was necessary to kill 

 a certain number of the riotous young males each year. These 

 skins were sent to St. Louis to be sold by public auction. They were 

 ultimately dressed and dyed in St. Louis by the same processes used 

 in the famous seal-dyeing establishments of London, which made 

 the London-dyed seal renowned for a hundred years. This is a 

 long story and one that will be told by itself. St. Louis had from 

 its very birth been a great fur centre ; so the auctions were planned 

 by the renowned firm of Funston Brothers. 



Simultaneously came the War. These convergings of different 

 factors to the same end are what one grows to regard as destiny. 

 With the War, shipping from Australia and Russia via Suez and the 

 North Sea was cut off. A lot of 12,000,000 Australian rabbits came 

 into Canada and were sold as Canadian fur. Then the Australian 

 rabbits came to the American market in a deluge of millions. 



Simultaneously with the coming of the Australian rabbit, Ameri- 

 can munition men and coke producers and dye manufacturers were 

 perfecting American dyes to oust German control. Fur dyers were 

 brought over from London and France and Leipzic ; and American 

 firms began turning out Hudson seals and Alaskan seals and electric 



