CAPTURE. 
Furs WHEN FIRST 
USED AS A LUXU- 
Re 
Si) AG Ser aie wy, , 
They abhor watet,: therefore the notion of their being the Satherion 
of 4riffotle is erroneous. 
Another way of taking them, befides thofe which I before men- 
tioned, 1s by placing a piece of timber from tree to tree horizontally; 
near one end of this is placed a bait: over the lower piece of wood is 
‘placed another, fufpended obliquely, and refting at oneend on a pott 
very flightly: a rod extends from it to.a noofe, to which the bait is 
faftened. As foon as the Sable feizes the meat, the upper timber 
falls, and kills the precious animal *. The hunting-feafon always be- 
gins with the firft fnows: but they are now become fo very fcarce, as 
to be confined to the vaft forefts of the extreme parts of Sibiria, and 
to the diltant Kamt/chatka. Such has been the rage of luxury! 
It was not till the later ages that the furs of beafts became an ar- 
ticle of luxury. The more refined nations of antient times never 
made ufe of them: thofe alone whom the former ftigmatized as bar- 
barians, were cloathed in the fkins of animals. Strabo defcribes the 
Indians covered with'the fkins of Lions, Panthers, and Bears+; and 
Seneca f, the Scythians cloathed with the fkins of Foxes, and the leffer 
quadrupeds. Virgil exhibits a picture of the favage Hyperboreans, 
fimilar to that which our late circumnavigators can witnefs to in the 
cloathing of the wild Americans, unfeen before by any polifhed people. 
Gens effrena virum Ripha@o tunditur Euro 5 
Et pecudum fulvis velantur corpora fetis. 
Moft part of Europe was at this time in fimilar circumftances. Czfar 
might be as much amazed with the fkin-dreffed heroes of Britain, as 
our celebrated Cook was at thofe of his new-difcovered regions. What 
time hath done to us, time, under humane conquerors, may effect 
for them. Civilization may take place, and thofe fpoils of animals, 
which are at prefent effential for cloathing, become the mere objeéts 
of ornament and luxury. 
* Decouvertes dans le Ruff, Sc. iv. 237. tab. vi. vii. + Strabo, lib. xvii. 
Pp. 1184. t Epift. Ep. xc. 
I can- 
