280 DECEMBER 



success namely, the profitable breeding of ostriches 

 for their plumes. Sables are now (1895) 30 per 

 cent, above the exorbitant price of last year, a 

 single skin of the best Russian quality commanding 

 as much as 45. As for silver foxes, the value of a 

 litter of these to the happy owner may be estimated 

 in light of the fact that last spring a single skin sold 

 for 170. Furs, as the writer in the Spectator justly 

 observes, add an exhilaration to the sense of warmth 

 which no other material can impart ; so if we allow 

 the animals which produce them to be killed out, 

 we shall not only be making wild nature poorer in 

 variety, but be squandering a luxury which can 

 never be restored. 



Our native fauna, in spite of the influence of the 

 Gulf Stream on our climate, is naturally rich in 

 the production of fur. The marten still lingers in 

 Wales; the death of one in that country was re- 

 corded in the Field of the same date as the Spectator 

 article. Two were killed in Argyllshire in 1896, 

 and, if I mistake not, it is not quite extinct in 

 the English lake district. No animal is more easily 

 reared in captivity; indeed, it is known that the 

 marten used to be kept in English houses as a 

 mouser before cats became common in this country. 



