46 FUR MARKETS. 



The Chinese traders are the principal purchasers at the 

 fair held annually at Kratka on the Chinese border; but 

 most of the Dog skins and mats, Goat skins and rugs, Thibet 

 lamb skins and crosses, and other Chinese furs, are exported 

 direct from Harbin, Mukden, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Peking, 

 Tientsen and the other points where they are collected. 



Leipzig is an important fur center, and the price of 

 Astrachan and Persian lamb skins is largely determined at 

 the sales held at the fair which opens there each year the 

 first Monday after Easter. 



Fairs are also held in Leipzig at New Year's and in Sep- 

 tember, but the chief mart for the sale of furs is the 

 Easter fair which lasts for two weeks from $he first 

 Monday after Easter, and is attended by merchants from 

 all the large fur centers in the world. Some American 

 furs are sold at these fairs, but the principal offerings 

 are Cats, Squirrels, Persian Lambs and other Asiatic 

 furs. 



The Irbit Fair on the Siberian side of the boundary 

 line between the two continents, is the mart for Russian 

 furs like Squirrel, Ermine, Fox, Beaver, Kolinsky, Rus- 

 sian Fitch, Sables, etc. The Nijni fair is more impor- 

 tant than the preceding, and large quantities of Persian, 

 Shiraz and Astrachan lambs, Squirrel skins, Ermine, 

 Bear, Mongolian Goat, White Fox, Wolf and Dog Skins 

 are sold there. 



The great fur events of the year however are the sales 

 held in January, March, June and October of each year in 

 the city of London. The January offerings often consist 

 principally of muskrats, beavers and opossums. It is at the 

 March sales that the choicest collection of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, and the finest consignments shipped to C. M. 

 Lampson and Company and other London ' brokers are 

 sold at auction to bidders from all garts of the world. Com- 

 paratively few buyers attend the June and October sales, 

 when the offerings consist of the less desirable late catches 

 and of unsold lots remaining from the former sales. The 

 reports of the sales made by C. M. Lampson & Company, 

 A. & W. Nesbitt, Ltd., Anning & Cobb, Flack Chandler, 

 Goad, Rigg and Co., Culverwell, Brooks and Cotton, 

 Dyster Haider, Henry Kiver, Barker and Co., Thorp and 

 Welby and Frederick Huth & Co., and the Hudson's Bay 

 Co. in 1913, will give an idea of the magnitude of the 

 different London sales at the present time. 



