SIBERIA— FUR-TRADE AND GOLD-DIGGINGS. 



211 



and will not hesitate to attack a prey of much greater size than itself. Although 

 various species of ermine are distributed over the whole forest region of the 

 north, yet Siberia produces the finest skins. The largest come from the Kolyma, 

 or are brought to the fair of Ostrownoje by the Tchutchi, who obtain them 

 from the coldest regions of America. 



The Siberian weasel ( Yiverra siberica), which is much smaller than the er- 

 mine, is likewise hunted for its soft and perfectly snow-white winter dress — the 

 tip of the tail not being black, as in the latter. 



The sea-otter, or kalan {Enhydris lutris), the most valuable of all the Rus- 

 sian fur-bearing animals, as 110 silver roubles is the average price of a single 

 skin, is nearly related to the weasel tribe. The enormous value set upon the 

 glossy, jet-black, soft, and thick fur of the kalan sufficiently explains how the 

 Russian hunters have followed his traces from Kamchatka to America, and 

 almost entirely extirpated him on many of the coasts and islands of Bering's 

 Sea and the Northern Pacific, where he formerly abounded. His habits very 

 much resemble those of the seal ; he haunts sea-washed rocks, lives mostly in 

 the water, and loves to bask in the sun. His hind feet have a membrane skirt- 

 ing the outside of the exterior toe, like that of a goose, and the elongated form 

 of his flexible body enables hira to swim with the greatest celerity. The love 

 of the sea-otters for their young is so great that they reckon their own lives as 

 nothing to protect them from danger ; and Steller, who had more opportunities 

 than any other naturalist for observing their habits, affirms that, when deprived 

 of their offspring, their grief is so strong that in less than a fortnight they waste 

 away to skeletons. On their flight they carry their young in their mouths, or 

 drive them along before them. If they succeed in reaching the sea, they begin 

 to mock their baffled pursuer, and express their joy by a variety of antics. 

 Sometimes they raise themselves upright in the water, rising and falling with 

 the waves, or holding a fore paw over their eyes, as if to look sharply at him ; 

 or they throw themselves on their back, rubbing their breast with their fore 

 paws ; or cast their young into the water, and catch them again, like a mother 

 playing with her infant. The sea-otter not only surpasses the fish-otter by the 

 beauty of his fur, but also in size, as he attains a length of from three to four 

 feet, exclusive of the tail. His food consists of small fishes, molluscs, and crus- 

 taceous animals, whose hard calcareous covering his broad grinders are well 

 adapted to crush. 



Next to the sea-otter, the black fox, whose skin is of a rich and shining 

 black or deep brown color, with the longer or exterior hairs of a silvery- white, 

 furnishes the most costly of all the Siberian furs. The average price of a sin- 

 gle skin amounts to 60 or 70 silver roubles, and rich amateurs will willingly 

 pay 300 roubles, or even more, for those of first-rate quality. The skin of the 

 Siberian red fox, which ranks next in value, is worth no more than 20 roubles ; 

 the steel-gray winter dress of the Siberian crossed fox (thus named from the 

 black cross on his shoulders), from 10 to 12 roubles; and that of the Arctic 

 fox, though very warm and close, no more than 6 or 8. 



The bear family likewise furnishes many skins to the Siberian furrier. That 

 of the young brown bear ( Ursus arctos) is highly esteemed for the trimming 



