336 



ANIMALS OF 



marks of alarm and animosity. Wherever 

 the martin conducts her young, a flock of 

 email birds are seen threatening and insulting 

 her, alarming every thicket, and often direct- 

 ing the hunter in his pursuit. The martin is 

 more common in North America than in any 

 part of Europe. These animals are found in 

 all the northern parts of the world, from Si- 

 beria to China and Canada. In every coun- 

 try they are hunted for their furs, which are 

 very valuable, and chiefly so when taken in 

 the beginning of winter. The most esteem- 

 ed parts of the martin's skin is that part of it 

 which is browner than the rest, and stretches 

 along the back-bone. Above twelve thousand 

 of these skins are annually imported into Eng- 

 land from Hudson's Bay, and above thirty 

 thousand from Canada. 



THE SABLE. 



MOST of the classes of the weasel kind 

 would have continued utterly unknown and 

 disregarded, were it not for their furs, which 

 are finer, more glossy, and soft, than those of 

 any other quadruped. Their dispositions are 

 fierce and untameable ; their scent generally 

 offensive; and their figure disproportioned 

 and unpleasing. The knowledge of one or 

 two of them would, therefore, have sufficed 

 curiosity ; and the rest would probably have 

 been confounded together under one common 

 name, as things useless and uninteresting, had 

 not their skins been coveted by the vain, and 

 considered as capable of adding to human 

 magnificence or beauty. 



Of all these, however, the skin of the sable 

 is the most coveted, and held in the highest 

 esteem. It is of a brownish black ; and the 

 darker it is it becomes the more valuable. 

 A single skin, though not above four inches 

 broad, is often valued at ten or fifteen pounds;" 

 the fur differing from others in this, that it has 

 no grain ; so that rub it which way you will, 

 it is equally smooth and unresisting. Never- 

 theless, though this little animal's robe was 

 so much coveted by the great, its history till 

 of late was but very little known ; and we are 

 obliged to Mr. Jonelin for the first accurate 



Regnard. 



description of its form and nature.* From 

 him we learn that the sable resembles the mar- 

 tin in form and size, and the weasel in the 

 number of its teeth; for it is to be observed, 

 that whereas the martin has thirty-eight teeth, 

 the weasel has but thirty-four ; in this respect, 

 therefore, the sable seems to make the shade 

 between these two animals; being shaped 

 like the one, and furnished with teeth like the 

 other. It is also furnished with very large 

 whiskers about the mouth ; its feet are broad, 

 and, as in the rest of its kind, furnished with 

 five claws on each foot. These are its con- 

 stant marks ; but its fur, for which it is so 

 much valued, is not always the same. Some 

 of these species are of a dark brown over all 

 the body, except the ears and the throat, 

 where the hair is rather yellow ; others are 

 more of a yellowish tincture, their cars and 

 throat being alsomuch paler. These,in both, 

 are the colours they have in winter, and which 

 they are seen to change in the beginning of 

 the spring; the former becoming of a yellow 

 brown, and the latter of a pale yellow. In 

 other respects they resemble their kind, in 

 vivacity, agility, and inquietude; in sleeping 

 by day, and seeking their prey by night; in 

 living upon smaller animals, and the disagree- 

 able odour that chiefly characterizes their 

 race. 



They generally inhabit along the banks of 

 rivers, in shady places, and in the thickest 

 woods. They leap with great ease from tree 

 to tree, and are said to be afraid of the sun, 

 which tarnishes the lustre of their robes. 

 They are chiefly hunted in winter for their 

 skins, during which part of the year they are 

 only in season. They are mostly found in 

 Siberia, and but very few in any other coun- 

 try of the world ; and this scarcity it is which 

 enhances their value. The hunting of the sa- 

 ble chiefly falls to the lot of the condemned 

 criminals, who are sent from Russia into these 

 wild and extensive forests, that, for the great- 

 est part of the year, are covered with snow; 

 and, in this instance, as in many others, the 

 luxuries and ornamentsof the vain,are wrought 

 out of the dangers and the miseries of the 

 wretched. These are obliged to furnish a 

 certain number of skins every year, and arc 



" ~^"^^ 



t> Buffon > vol. xxvii. p. 113* 



