THE SABLE. 



The sable hunters frequently endure the utmost 

 extremity of cold, hunger, and fatigue. They pene- 

 trate into the inmost recesses of those immense woods 

 and wildernesses, with which the extensive and deso- 

 late regions of Siberia abound without any other 

 means of tracing back their way than by marking the 

 trots as they advance. Should they neglect this pre- 

 caution, or through any inattention deviate from their 

 track, they must inevitably be lost. Sometimes they 

 trace the sables on the new fallen snow, place their 

 nets at the entrance of their holes, and wait two or 

 three days for their coming out, during which time 

 they often suffer extremely from the inclemency of 

 the weather, or the too early consumption of their 

 provisions. In short, the hunting of sables is a serious 

 and perilous employment, carried on in a rigorous 

 climate, at an inclement season, and in the most deso- 

 late regions of the earth amidst an aggregate of hard- 

 ships, of which we can scarcely form any idea. You 

 had never, perhaps, my dear Sir, heard of the suffer- 

 ings of those, who being exposed to inclement skies, 

 explore the extremities of frozen regions, and procure 

 those elegant decorations which adorn the persons of 

 the opulent. 



I have already observed the cross fox, and the cor- 

 sac fox, the skins of which constitute an important 

 article of trade, and especially the black fox, the skin 

 of which is esteemed the most valuable of all the furs 

 in use. There are also other animals in the northern 

 regions which contribute to the supply of the fur 

 trade, among which may be reckoned the fisher, a na- 

 tive of North America, which very much resembles 

 the sable, and abounds so much on that continent, that 

 sixteen hundred skins have been imported from thence 

 in one season. 



In the furs of these animals; of which I have just 

 given you a brief description, Russia carries on an 

 important and lucrative trade with most of the coun- 

 tries of Europe and Asia, but most of all with Turkey 

 and China. Constantinople and Pekin may indeed 

 be considered as the tw.o central points of this traffic, 



