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SABLE. 
avarice of mankind, who employ every means to 
destroy the animal, that they may enrich themselves 
by adding another luxury to the many already en- 
joyed by the opulent. 
In size and figure the sable resembles the martin. 
The skin of one which was sent Mr. Pennant, from 
Canada, measured twenty inches from the nose to 
the tail ; the tail itself measured eight inches from 
the base to the end of the hairs. These little ani- 
mals are found in the Asiatic part of Russia, in 
Kamtschatka, and Japan: but they are by no means 
so plentiful as formerly ; and the high price set 
upon their skins makes the hunters so eager to ob- 
tain them, that the sable will probably in time be 
extinct in all the accessible parts of the country. 
In the vast forests of fir with which the extreme 
parts of Siberia abound, the sables are to be found 
in the greatest numbers. There they either live 
in holes in the earth, beneath the roots of trees, 
or, like the martin, form nests in the hollow trunks, 
and skip with great agility from one tree to an- 
other, They prey during the summer on such 
animals as they can conquer ; in winter they catch 
birds ; and in the autumn are content with a vege- 
table diet, feeding chiefly on the berries of the ser- 
vice-tree, on hurtle-berries and cranberries. At this 
season of the year their skins are of least value, 
as they are subject to itch, and destroy the fur by 
rubbing themselves against the trees. About April 
the female brings forth from three to five little 
