FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 49 



To the deptlis of the pine-woods belong the fur-bearing 

 animals, which form the staple of so extensive a commerce 

 in the North- Western States and in Canada. These are 

 the silver and cross foxes, the fisher, the marten, the otter, 

 the mink, and the lynx; and, in an inferior degree, the 

 wolverine, the beaver, the ermine, and the musk-rat. 



The beaver was formerly very numerous, and its fur 

 was highly prized ; but owing to the incessant persecution 

 it has undergone from the hunter and the trapper, it has 

 now become comparatively scarce. At the same time, the 

 substitution of silk for beaver-skin in the manufacture of 

 hats has rendered its fur almost worthless. 



Of all furs — with the exception of the sea-otter, which 

 is found only on the Pacific coast — that of the silver fox 

 commands the highest price. Its colour is a beautiful 

 gray; the white hairs, which predominate, being tipped 

 with black, and mixed with others of a glossy jet. The 

 cross foxes — so called from the dark stripe down the back, 

 with a cross over the shoulders, like that on a donkey — 

 vary in every degree, says Lord Milton, between the silver 

 and the common red fox ; and the worth of their skins 

 varies in the same ratio. 



Next to the best cross foxes we may place the fisher, 

 the marten, and the mink ; all these being animals of the 

 polecat tribe. Then comes the otter ; and after the otter 

 the ermine, which in the forests of the North- West is ex- 

 ceedingly common, and by the trapper is regarded as a 

 nuisance, because it destroys the baits set for the marten 

 and fisher. The skin of the black bear, which is also 



occasionally discovered in his winter retreat, has a certain 

 (710) 4. 



