On the Fur Trade, and Fur-bearing Animals. 317 
into the White Sea on the north, extending east to the Uralian moun- 
tains, furnished sables, marterns, beavers, foxes, white and black 
minks, ermines, graies, and wolverings. The finest sables and black 
foxes came as tribute from the Samoieds near the mouth of the Oby, 
Dr. Fletcher, in describing the fur trade of Russia in 1558, enumer- 
ates, *‘ black, dun, red and white foxes, sables, luzernes, martrones, 
(martins) gurnestalles or armines, minever, beaver, wolverine, grey 
and red squirrels, and the water rat :” and adds that “beside the 
quantity spent in the country, there are transported out of it by the 
merchants of Buccharia, Persia, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and 
some parts of Christendom, to the amount of 500,000 rubles. The 
tuble being equal to two ounces of silver.” The sable at that date, 
doubtless, held the highest rank at the Russian court, as “ the Czar’s 
crown was lined with a fair black sable, worth forty rubles, and his 
garments were of rich tissue and cloth of gold, furred with very 
dark sables.” The Czar sent presents of sables, lysernes, and other 
beautiful furs to Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, but Queen 
Elizabeth soon prohibited’ the wearing of any but native furs within 
her dominions; and although the trade heads sezraeedé it — to 
decline, and was soon abandoned. 
Since the conquest of Siberia, by the emperor of Rossioy in 1640, 
the inhabitants of those interminable wilds, from the Uralian moun- 
tains to the Pacific Ocean, pay an annual tribute of furs to the czar. 
One skin out of every forty is delivered by the natives, to the agents 
of the different commissariats, and Kamschatka, and the Kurile ‘is- 
lands afford no inconsiderable part of the precious revenue. 
“The mountains of Kamschatka are rich in fur-bearing animals of 
the most valuable kinds.* Bears, wolves, reindeer, argali or moun- 
tain’ sheep, otters, beavers, lynxes and foxes of every variety are 
found in the greatest plenty. Sables are abundant and also the fiery 
red fox, the finest of the species. 
Immense quantities of fur are sent from Siberia to China, but the 
choicest kinds, the precious ermine of Yakutsk, the brilliant fiery 
foxes, and the best sables, are taken to Moscow and Novogorod, for 
the use of the princes and nobles of Russia, Turkey and Persia. 
The discovery of Hudson’s Bay and the river St. Lawrence, open- 
ed a new field of immeasurable extent, for the trade in furs. The 
* Cochrane’s Trav. De Lesseps, &c. 
