MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS 443 



the skin when pulling it off, which might easily reduce 

 its value by 50 to 75 per cent. At the best the skins of 

 "slinks," although often very beautiful, are fragile and 

 have little wearing power, being liable to crack during 

 use. Even the best " Broad-tail" skins, although much 

 more costly, fall far short of the durability and wearing 

 quality of " Persian Lamb " skins. Very few are of 

 great value, as, if not got at the critical stage of develop- 

 ment, the lustre and figuring which confer the special 

 value on the skin are wanting. 



The unpleasant "baby-lamb" story, to the effect that 

 the mothers are slaughtered before the lambs are born 

 to secure broad-tail skins, is entirely without foundation 

 in fact. It was denied in Dr. James Anderson's volume 

 of *' Extracts from Dr. Pallas's Writings from Personal 

 Knowledge Dealing with Sheep," published in this country 

 in 1794. In spite of repeated authoritative confirmations 

 of the denial by the Thorers of Leipzig and others, the 

 error cropped up again a few years ago and did no little 

 injury to the fur trade, as wealthy sentimental customers 

 were dissuaded from investing in broad-tail garments as a 

 protest against the supposed cruelty. As has just been 

 explained, the origin of these skins is, and has always 

 been, due to natural causes which need not give anxiety 

 to anyone. The fact, which might have occurred even to 

 the uninitiated, is that the ewe, now worth 80 to 100 

 roubles, 9 is infinitely more valuable for breeding purposes 

 than her progeny at that early age would be though its 

 skin might realize 15 roubles. Only a small proportion 

 of the saleable skins of prematurely born lambs have a 

 high commercial value. Owing to the hardy constitution 

 of the breed the ewes usually recover. The lambs are 

 killed in the ordinary way, mainly but not exclusively for 

 their skins, for the Khirgiz use the flesh for food. 



There are three ways of preserving lamb-skins in pre- 

 paration for transit : (i) Drying them, by toggling with- 

 out stretching, when quite green, in a shady place away 

 from the direct influence of the sun; (2) salting them and 

 placing them for a night in heaps of pairs with the green 



9 i rouble = 2s. id. 



