146 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



land imports 82 to 90 million skins a year, and Australia exports 

 40 to 50 millions, and Russia uses 4 to 5 millions a year, and America 

 9 to 12 millions, and Canada can sell all her own and resell 12 million 

 from Australia, one begins to have a delirium tremens of rabbit. 

 One would not have to do much figuring to prove that rabbits 

 bring more money to the fur trade than seal and marten and sable 

 combined. It may be called the poor man's fur ; but when it comes 

 out of the dye works as seal, ermine, fox, lynx, it also becomes 

 the fur of the rich ; and it is the one supply of fur that seems ex- 

 haustless. But rabbit should have a fur deep as your hand is wide; 

 but that means nothing ; for the dresser's evening machine can cut 

 it to a stub. The dye can be told from the color of the under skin ; 

 and the fur can be told from the "catty lick" of the sheen. Its 

 gloster does not last, and to me, rabbit dyed never so well always 

 lacks lustre. It is not a durable fur ; but for such wear as requires 

 a low price for careless usage, rabbit will always remain without a 



peer. 



Red Fox and Cross Fox 



Of the fox skins used in the fur trade, it is very hard to put 

 down classifications that conform to science. Ten years ago, the 

 trade would have called black and silver two foxes. To-day, since 

 the fur farming of foxes in Prince Edward Island, black and silver 

 are one and the same, unless black fox is a dyed red fox of poor color 

 or an Arctic fox of some defect dyed. Of the foxes known to trade 

 rated as to price to-day, cross fox, blue fox and Arctic fox come 

 first. Red fox, white fox, kit fox and gray come lower in the scale. 

 The world output of fox peltries runs from 1,600,000 to 2,000,000, 

 of which three-quarters are reds. The best foxes come from 

 America, and the best in America from Prince Edward Island, 

 Alaska, Labrador and the North. Europe used 30,000 white foxes 

 a year ; America, 70,000 ; and Canada easily used 5000 Polar foxes 

 a year. 



Science describes the white fox as an Arctic color phase of 

 the red, though old French trappers will tell you cross fox is not 



