On the Fur Trade, and Fur-hearing Animals. 317 



into the White Sea on the north, extending east to the Uralian moun- 

 tains, furnished sables, marterns, beavers, foxes, white and black 

 rainks, ermines, graies, and wolverings. The finest sables and black 

 foxes came as tribute from the Samoieds near the mouth of the Oby. 

 Dr. Fletcher, in describing the fur trade of Russia in 1558, enumer- 

 ates, " black, dun, red and white foxes, sables, luzernes, martrones, 

 (martins) gurnestalles or armines, minever, beaver, wolverine, grey 

 and red squirrels, and the water rat :" and adds that " beside the 

 quantity spent in the country, there are transported out of it by the 

 merchants of Buccharia, Persia, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and 

 some parts of Christendom, to the amount of 500,000 rubles. The 

 ruble being equal to two ounces of silver." The sable at that date, 

 doubtless, held the highest rank at the Russian court, as " the Czar's 

 crown was lined with a fair black sable, worth forty rubles, and his 

 garments were of rich tissue and cloth of gold, furred with very 

 dark sables." The Czar sent presents of sables, lysernes, and other 

 beautiful furs to Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, but Queen 

 Elizabeth soon prohibited the wearing of any but native furs within 

 her dominions ; and although the trade had flourished, it began to 

 decline, and was soon abandoned. 



Since the conquest of Siberia, by the emperor of Russia, in 1640, 

 ' the inhabitants of those interminable wilds, from the Uralian moun- 

 tains to the Pacific Ocean, pay an annual tribute of furs to the czar. 

 One skin out of every forty is delivered by the natives, to the agents 

 of the different commissariats, and Kamschatka, and the Kurile is- 

 lands afford no inconsiderable part of the precious revenue. 



The mountains of Kamschatka are rich in fur-bearing animals of 

 the most valuable kinds.* Bears, wolves, reindeer, argali or moun- 

 tain sheep, otters, beavers, lynxes and foxes of every variety are 

 found in the greatest plenty. Sables are abundant and also the fiery 

 red fox, the finest of the species. 



Immense quantities of fur are sent from Siberia to China, but the 

 choicest kinds, the precious ermine of Yakutsk, the brilliant fiery 

 foxes, and the best sables, are taken to Moscow and Novogorod, for 

 the use of the princes and nobles of Russia, Turkey and Persia. 



The discovery of Hudson's Bay and the river St. Lawrence, opeii- 

 ed a new field of immeasurable extent, for the trade in furs. The 



* Cochrane's Trav. De Lesseps, &c. 



