TWO FASHIONABLE FURS 
To those who are of an observant nature, an afternoon’s 
stroll through any of the fashionable London thoroughfares 
during any of the past few winters must have revealed 
the prevalence of a fashion for the beautiful furs respectively 
known as blue fox and white fox. The skins of these 
animals are either worn entire as boas (or “necklets,” as 
I am told they are called by ladies) or made up as muffs, 
and in either condition are strikingly beautiful. Blue fox 
has long been highly esteemed as a fur, skins selling for 
between ten and fourteen guineas ten years ago. White 
fox, on the other hand, has only during the last few years 
been appreciated as its beauty deserves, the price per skin 
having risen from between half a crown and_ sixteen 
shillings and sixpence during. 1891 to three or four 
guineas, or even more, during recent years. 
But it is not the price of either the blue or the white 
skins I propose to discuss in detail in the present article. 
The circumstance to which I desire to draw the attention 
of my readers is the very remarkable one that both the 
blue and the white skins belong to one and the same kind 
of animal. At first sight this may seem, perhaps, a fact 
of no special interest or importance. For, as we all know, 
certain species of mammals, such as the stoat or ermine, 
the mountain-hare, and the lemming, are normally white in 
certain parts of their habitats in winter and dark-coloured in 
207 
