FURS AND THEIR WEARERS. 



H5 



are called prime ; those taken out of season are, in common parlance, 

 said to be stagy. 



Other things being the same, the colder the climate the better the 

 fur. Hence our best furs are generally obtained in the higher lati- 

 tudes, or in cool mountain-regions, during the prevalence of snow and 

 the severity of winter. Thus the hunter is exposed to much labor, 

 fatigue, privation, and danger. They who, in the inhospitable clime 

 of Siberia, hunt the sable, in the most inclement season of the year, 

 undergo intense suffering and hardship. 



Fig. 4. 



Sables are three or four times as large as the common weasel, to 

 which family they belong. They are usually taken between Novem- 

 ber and February, in snares, traps, or pitfalls, baited with flesh or fish. 

 They are then of a beautiful black color, but are brownish in summer. 

 The fur of the Russian sable, by its richness and elegance, maintains 

 its preeminence. It may be distinguished from all other furs, by the 

 hairs turning and lying with equal ease in either direction ; which 

 may be shown by blowing it. It is limited in quantity, only about 

 15,000 being caught yearly, and the price of the best is almost fabu- 

 lous : a furrier suggests from $20 to $150 per skin. Fresh furs have 

 what dealers call a bloomy appearance. Dyed sables generally lose 

 their gloss, whether the lower hair has taken the dye or not ; and the 

 hairs are twisted or crisped. Some smoke the skins to blacken them, 

 but the smell and crisped hairs betray the cheat. To detect dyeing 

 or smoking, rub the fur with a moist linen cloth, which will then be 

 blackened. The Chinese, however, dye the sables so that the color 

 lasts, and the fur keeps its gloss ; then, the fraud can be detected only 

 by the crisped hairs. 



VOL. IT. — 10 



