THE RARE FURS OF THE WEASEL FAMILY 105 



back be blended by hand feathering. And note again, the marten 

 is not a striped animal. The stripe in the coat is nothing but the 

 beautiful dimple of darker, richer fur down the backbone. 



And of the marten family, the Russian sable is the king. He 

 is the smallest of the martens, too, small almost as a squirrel, 9 

 inches long and less with a tail 5 inches or less, very dark brown 

 with a silvery sheen to his under hair and no spot of white on throat 

 or legs. His habitat is Siberia. As high as £33 was cheap for a 

 skin in London and to-day the price is near £100. Before the War, 

 the normal catch used to be 25,000 annually, but just before the 

 downfall of the Royal Government of Russia, the annual catch of 

 Russian sable had been so falling off that the Government was plan- 

 ning for a closed season for some years. Steel traps were forbidden. 

 Unprime sable furs were subject to confiscation ; and all sable 

 exports had to be tabulated in customs returns, where they could 

 be inspected. It used to be said that a trapper in Siberia who had 

 a successful run of sable for a single year could afford to retire 

 a rich nabob. There is on record the case of one man "coming out" 

 with 3000, whether caught by himself, traded from the Chuchees, 

 or stolen — is not known ; but on sale of his yearly catch, he re- 

 tired. He had found his gold nugget in one season of three months. 



The head of the Russian sable is almost a round ball. Includ- 

 ing his tail, 18 inches is long for his measurement. His long over 

 hairs are almost black. His nose is black, his ears gray. His 

 chest and sides are deep chestnut brown. Under his throat, he 

 wears a fur cravat of golden yellow. Second-grade Russian sable 

 have white hairs among the long over blacks. A peculiar beauty 

 of the long over hairs is they turn equally in every direction and so 

 never acquire that "catty licked" look common to kolinsky. 

 They look like the hairs on a creature that is alive. The tips of 

 the over hairs are darkest, and the under fur is so thick it can hardly 

 be blown open. The finest Russian sable like the finest types of 

 all rare furs comes from the wooded areas of pine, poplar, willow. 

 Russian sable from cedar forests is a lighter color ; but that may be 



