176 CARNIVORA FISSIPEDIA. 



Yenesei are large and coarse and for the most part light 

 in color. 



Some long, thin-furred skins are received from the Altai 

 mountain section, that like the large, coarse, light-colored 

 skins from Nekolaievsk, Afghanistan and Turkistan, are 

 only suitable for blending. Many of the small, wide- 

 stretehed, brown Sables from the Amur district are, how- 

 ever, well silvered and of a fair quality. 



The range of the Sable originally extended from the 

 Ural Mountains to the Bering Sea, and from the moun- 

 tains on the southern border of Siberia to the 68th parallel 

 north latitude. Now its chief haunts are in the mountain 

 forests of Eastern Siberia and Kamschatka. 



Sables should only be purchased where the buyer can 

 have the fullest confidence in the representations of the 

 dealer, as skins that have been taken out of season, or 

 artificially darkened, are often palmed off upon the 

 uninitiated as prime or natural. 



The Sable is a nocturnal animal, averse to the presence 

 of mankind, and inclining to the least known and most 

 inaccessible parts of the country. It subsists upon hares, 

 birds, fish and every living thing it can kill. Sables make 

 their nests in holes in the trees, and bring forth one lit- 

 ter of four or five young each year. Formerly they were 

 caught in traps; but now they are generally hunted with 

 dogs who either run them down, or drive them into trees 

 from which they are knocked with long poles into nets 

 stretched to receive them. A hunter who succeeds in cap- 

 turing twenty Sables in a season is considered lucky. 

 Hunting the Sable in the midst of winter and tremendous 

 snows is a dangerous task. Is is largely to the pursuit 

 of this animal that we owe the discovery of the eastern 

 provinces of Siberia. 



HUDSON BAY SABLE. 



The American, or Brown, Marten (Mustela-americana) 

 is generally known as the Hudson Bay Sable; although 

 strictly speaking, it is more like the Pine Marten than the 

 Russian Sable in color and habits. It is found in the 

 forests of North America in the Hudson's Bay district, 



