May 1, 1896.J 



KNOWLEDGE 



103 



cooked. This was in 1776, and it was left to the now 

 veteran Sir Joseph Hooker, who accompanied Sir James 

 Ross on his memorable Antarctic expedition, 1830 to 1843, 

 to pubUsh a full and illustrated account of this remarkable 

 plant, partly from his own experience and observations 

 and partly from Anderson's manuscript in the British 

 Museum. The name Piiniilm he adopted from Anderson, 

 who proposed it to commemorate the name of Sir John 

 Pringle, who wrote a treatise on sc)irvy, which is appended 

 to the account of Cook's first voyage. 



This plant is the largest and the most abundant in 

 Kerguelen, growing most luxuriantly, however, on the 

 sea-shore, where it is the first to greet the grateful 

 mariner. It belongs to the cruciferae, the family to which 

 belong our cabbages, cauliflowers, radishes, turnips, cress, 

 and other valuable esculents ; and it is one of the most 

 distinct of 

 its family, 

 not being 

 very closely 

 related to 

 any existing 

 member. In 

 addition to 

 being abun- 

 dant in Ker- 

 guelen, it 

 also occurs 

 plentifully 

 inthePrince 

 Edward, 

 Crozet, and 

 Mac dona Id 

 groups, 

 which, al- 

 though un- 

 inhabited, 

 are the re- 

 sort of 

 whalers, to 

 whom it is 

 a great boon 



and luxury. -*"t"^ ^°^^^- 



Sir Joseph 



Hooker states that during the three months' stay of the 

 Erehux and Terror at Kerguelen in 1H40, the native 

 cabbage was cooked daily for the use of the officers and 

 crew. I have written somewhat fully on this plant because 

 of its immense utility to man in a region where there 

 is so little vegetation, and where in the islands of the 

 Indian Ocean in question it is the only member of the 

 natural order which, Ln corresponding northern latitudes, 

 is so numerously represented and produces such a variety 

 of esculent vegetables. 



OUR FUR PRODUCERS.-III. 



FOXES, WOLVES, AND BEARS. 



By R. Lydekker, B.A.Cantab., F.R.S. 



NEXT in importance to those of the weasel tribe, 

 among the land carnivora, are the furs of the 

 various species of wolves and foxes, the pelt of the 

 renowned silver fox of North America realizing 

 prices second only to those paid for skins of the 

 sea-otter. Both foxes and wolves belong to the great 

 dog family {Canidce), and as the general appearance of all 



these animals is suificiently well known to our readers 

 there is no necessity for givmg any description. 



Few mammals are subject to greater variation in colour- 

 ation than the ordinary fox {Canis ridpe>^) : and hence it 

 happens that whereas this animal is really a very widely 

 spread one, with numerous local varieties, it has been split 

 up into a host of nominal species, such as the cross fox, 

 silver fox, Himalayan fox, and NUe fox. ^Yiser counsels 

 fortunately, however, now obtain, and ("among European 

 naturalists at any rate) these and other varieties are 

 reckoned merely as peculiarly coloured races of the common 

 fox. Even in England there is a certain amount of 

 variability in this widely-spread species, examples being 

 sometimes killed in which the characteristic white tip to 

 the " brush " is wanting ; whUe one has been caught with 

 the under parts as dark as in the Italian race. In the 



latter in- 

 stance it is, 

 However, of 

 course possi- 

 ble that the 

 animal may 

 have been 

 a foreign 

 " bagman ' 

 imported 

 into this 

 countn-. 



The' de- 

 scriptions 

 of all the 

 colour vari- 

 ations to 

 which the 

 foxissnbject 

 are far too 

 long to be 

 even re- 

 ferred to 

 here, and 

 belong more 

 properly to 

 a work on 

 natural 

 history ; and we shall consequently confine our notice, in 

 the main, to the prices and numbers of the different 

 varieties of pelts that come into the market. As the 

 most expensive and most beautiful of all, the North 

 American silver fox claims our first attention. With the 

 exception of the tail-tip, this variety is almost entirely 

 black, the hair on the hinder part of the back, outsides of 

 the thighs, and head being ringed with grey : but some 

 examples are wholly black and others wholly grey. It is 

 now a comparatively scarce animal ; but about five-and- 

 forty years since it was sometimes seen in the mountains 

 of Pennsylvania and the wilder districts of New York 

 State. The American Fur Company obtained most of its 

 skins from the Upper ilississippi and the districts to the 

 north-west of the Missouri River. Fiom about one 

 thousand five hundred to two thousand skins are annually 

 sold in London. Of these, the pale-coloured varieties realize 

 only from some five to eight pounds apiece ; but even in 

 1H90 fine black skins sold at from fifty pounds to seventy- 

 two pounds. In 1894 the price went up to an extraordi- 

 nary degree, and many skins were sold at more than one 

 hundred pounds. The highest price was, however, 

 realized at a sale in London in the spring of 189.'>, when 

 an unusually fine skin sold at no less a figure than one 

 hundred and seventy-five pounds. The pelt8, which are 



