934 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 12, 1909. 
foxes are especially fine, the fur being very silky 
and yet heavy. These furs, trapped in small 
numbers by the natives, are purchased by col¬ 
lectors w'ho travel about from village to village, 
picking up a few furs at each. 
The Chinese, who consume many furs, pur¬ 
chase great quantities of local furs which never 
see the great markets. 
London, however, remains the world’s fur 
market, and in London there are two concerns 
which very nearly monopolize the business. They 
have quarterly sales in January, March, June 
and October; sales attended by all the European 
buyers or their representatives. The magnitude 
of the trade is shown by the fact that one of 
these firms, Messrs. C. M. Lampson & Co., sold 
in 1908 more than 3,000,000 muskrats and more 
than 2,800,000 opossums, including those from 
North America and Australia. In March, 1908, 
the united sales of Messrs. C. M. Lampson & 
Co., and the Hudson Bay Co., were for three 
or four sorts of fur, as follows: Mink, 147,397; 
otter, 14,137; marten, 48,077; lynx, 43,415. The 
total number of pieces of fur sold by Messrs. 
C. M. Lampson & Co. during the year 1908 was 
nearly 9,000,000. 
It is often asked, “What is the world’s total 
product of fur?” It is impossible to give any 
reply to this question, for statistics in this re¬ 
spect are wholly lacking. The records, except 
for these two London firms, are wanting, and 
we know nothing about the home consumption 
anywhere. Furthermore, the matter is complicated 
by the use of a multitude of the skins of domes¬ 
tic animals, especially sheep skins and cat skins, 
and as time goes on and the prices of furs in¬ 
crease, more and more use will be made of the 
hides of domestic animals. Within two or three' 
years horsehide coats have become popular 
woman’s wear in North America, and while this 
fur is pompously christened Russian pony or 
Siberian pony, or Japanese pony, most of us 
know very well that it is plain horse. In the 
same way we hear constantly of Alaska sable, 
the dignified and high-sounding name given to 
the humble animal which may or may not be 
carried about by the tail, according to the taste 
and fancy of the carrier. One of the expensive 
furs of the present day is the skin of a domes¬ 
tic lamb, sold to women under the title Astra- 
kan, Persian lamb. Caracul and perhaps many 
other impressive names. The red fox, for 
which, not so very long ago, the fox hunter 
was glad to get 75 cents or $1, now sells for 
five times that, and after it has been dyed, is 
called black fox—a very expensive fur—or after 
it has been dyed black and has had some white 
lynx hairs scattered through it, it is called silver 
fox, and becomes still more expensive. 
Whether the prices of furs will continue to 
increase cannot now be told, but it is certain 
that in recent years the increase has been very 
great. Some skins have almost doubled in value, 
though others to be sure have scarcely moved 
at all. On the whole, however, the advance has 
been considerable, and this would seem to indi¬ 
cate a growing demand for furs. It has been sug¬ 
gested that this was due in part to the popu¬ 
larity of the automobile, but this hardly seems 
likely to be true. The furs used for automobile 
coats are usually made of more or less coarse 
and inexpensive skins, such as dog, raccoon, 
wombat, cow and other similar furs which have 
t 
not increased in value at all in proportion to 
more valuable furs. On the other hand auto¬ 
mobile coats are often lined with squirrel and 
musquash. 
[to be concluded.] 
The Grouse Enemy. 
Uncasville, Conn., June 4 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I am compelled to take exception 
to the statements made by B. as to the causes 
of the scarcity of grouse. 
I lived in Saratoga Springs, sixteen miles 
from Schuylerville, from 1857 till 1874, con¬ 
tinuously. I shot all over that country every 
year. I shot from Mechanicsville all up the 
Hudson Valley, Fort Miller, Quaker Springs, 
Schuylerville, Fort Edward, Glens Falls, all 
around. Northumberland, Gansevoort, Fort 
Ann, Lake George, Old Ti, Warrensburg, 
Friends Lake, Loon and Brant lakes, Beaver 
Pond, Lilly Pond, Schroon River, North Creek, 
Thurman’s, The Glenn, Greenfield, Rock City, 
Ballston, Round Lake, Ballston Lake, etc. I 
shot with nearly every man — professional and 
amateur — that shot in the sections above men¬ 
tioned. I shot with the Diamond brothers. Bill 
and Jim; the Curtis’; the Rileys, Jim, George, 
Will, Elmer; George Crum; Pete Francis, the 
halfbreed; the Rogers; Chas. and Dan Gilbert; 
Corneal Rose; Geo. and John Petill; Oscar and 
Ed. Avery; and, best of all, old Bob Bryan. I 
could continue the list beyond the patience of 
the editor, and yet, strange to say, I never 
heard one of these hunters, or shooting men, 
mention this seven years’ plague of the blue 
hawk. 
We had very few, if any, of the cottontail in 
that country. The great northern hare or 
white rabbit, as he was commonly called, in¬ 
fested our swamps and woods, and his disap¬ 
pearance was progressive, until finally we had 
to go far from around Saratoga Springs to find 
him in sufficient quantities for sport. The same 
thing was true of the grouse, or partridge, as 
he was commoffiy called. He went gradually, 
and as the demand for chicken partridge from 
the lake houses and road houses and club 
houses—not to mention the big hotels in Sara¬ 
toga Springs—increased, so the partridge grew 
beautifully less. In 1874, 'with old Bob Bryan, 
I killed around Friends and Brant lakes and 
Warrensburg 360 odd ruffed grouse between 
Thanksgiving and Christmas, over one red and 
white Irish setter, old Frank. We hunted him 
every huntable day. 
I confess I sinned, but I was not — nor was 
any one else at , that time — educated as at 
present. At that time every station agent on 
the Adirondack Railroad and storekeeper near 
the railroad had signs out, “Cash paid for 
Partridge, 20 c. apiece.” Later, as they grew 
scarce — not from the blue hawk, but man’s 
greed—the price rose, and many a barrel have 
I seen shipped to Washington and Fulton mar¬ 
kets. The game dealers in these markets used 
to send to these agents weekly quotations. 
This was the true blue hawk that turned these 
finest of covers into barren wastes. 
I have shot around Hatteras and Ocracoke 
Inlet, Parhlico, Albemarle and Cove Sounds, 
but never heard of the old goose theory. Next 
time I write my friends there I will ask them 
to post me, when the old and tough geese are 
due, and I and friends will hold over. 
In this section where I have resided over five 
years, the blue hawk is working overtime on 
partridges, but he ignores Bre’r Rabbit, for he 
is in prolific evidence. In all my rambles 
around Saratoga Springs, the only hawks I 
ever saw were the red-shouldered, hen, sparrow, 
fish and sharp-shinned hawks, and very few of 
the latter. All I ever killed had field mice, 
ground moles and little birds in their crops. 
I never found the semblance of a dead partridge 
in their crops. We have but two hawks in 
evidence here, the red-tailed and the darter, a 
little fellow; some call him the butcher bird— 
he is not much bigger than a robin. ' 
This is my idea as to what causes the scarcity 
of ruffed grouse; great increase in the number 
of gunners, greater facilities for rapid loading, 
greater improvement in the killing qualities of 
the guns, ammunition improvement, the in¬ 
creasing demand for this toothsome bird—the 
king of all our game birds. The clearing up of 
the land tends to concentrate him and to make 
him more getable. My theory is very simple, 
but I fear no less true. 
Wash. A. Coster. 
Hunting Literature. 
Vienna, Austria, May 29. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The first International Hunting and 
Field Sports Exhibition, which will be held in 
Vienna from May to October, 1910, promises to 
be a first class attraction. Nearly every country 
has intimated its intention of being officially rep¬ 
resented, and this together with the large num¬ 
ber of private interests which will participate 
will give it the character of a great international 
review, a world’s exposition in which everything 
connected with hunting will find a place. Not 
the least striking feature of the exhibition will 
be an instructive section giving not only pictures 
of the various historical and modern methods of 
hunting together with the different weapons in 
use, etc., but also containing a systematic collec¬ 
tion of the ancient literature relating to the 
subj ect. 
1 he sub-committee for literature and book 
trade, charged with the collection and suitable 
arrangement of this material, appeals to all those 
interested in hunting to give their active support 
to this ideal object by kindly lending the com¬ 
mittee- any old literary works suitable for ex¬ 
hibition in the above mentioned section. 
The sub-committee would respectfully request 
all those in possession of such works to send 
in the names of those objects intended for ex¬ 
hibition so that a proper choice can be made. 
All communications on the subject should be 
addressed to “The Sub-Committee for Literature 
and Book Trade, First International Hunting and 
Field Sports Exhibition, to be held in Vienna in 
1910, Vienna HI., Lothringer Strasse 16,” to 
which address the works can afterward be for¬ 
warded. 
The sub-committee ventures to hope that this 
appeal will meet with a ready response on the 
part of all those interested in hunting and the 
literature gonnected therewith, and will be glad 
to receive coihmunications on the subject. 
The Sub-Committee for Literature 
AND Book Trade, 
Wilhelm Frick, President. 
