Bears of various kinds and colours, many varieties of foxes, beavers, racoons, badgers, minks, lynxes, musk-rats, rab bits, hares, and squirrels. are procured in North America. Of all the American varieties, the fur of the black fox, some times called the silver fox, is the most valuable ; next to that in value is the fur of the red fox, which is exported to China, where it is used for trimmings, linings, and robes, which are ornamented in spots or waves with the black fur of the paws of the same animal. The fur of the sil ver-fox is also highly esteemed. This is a scarce animal, inhabiting the woody country below the falls of the Columbia river. It has long thick fur of a deep lead colour, intermingled with long hairs white at the top, forming a lustrous silver grey, whence the animal derives its name. The hides of bison (improperly called buffaloes), of the sheep of the Rocky Mountains, and of various kinds of deer, form part of the fur trade of North Ame rica ; and sometimes the skin of the white Arctic fbx and of the Polar bear are found in the packs brought to the European traders by the most northern tribes of Indians.
There is but one species of fur which is peculiar to England, the silver-tipped rabbit of Lincolnshire. The colour of the fur is grey of different shades, mixed with longer hairs tipped with white. This far is but little used in England, but meets a ready sale in Russia and China ; the dark-coloured skins are pre ferred in the former country, and the lighter-coloured in China.
The number of skins imported into this country in 1843 was as follows : imported. Home sum on.
No.
Bear . . • 11,640 1,235 Beaver . . 49,688 52,048 Cat . . 5,430 1,992 Coney . . 60,655 63,279 Deer . . . 175,804 79,267 Ermine . . 105,847 89,073 Fitch . . 174,308 173,445 Fox . . . 80,927 4,120 Goat . . . 512,287 337,068 Bid, in the hair . 92,716 54,744 - dressed . 446,372 444,071 Lamb, undressed . 1,288,902 1,332,400 - tanned, &c. 10,391 7,348 Lynx . . 9,853 6,273 Marten . . 208,881 182,515 Mink . • 139,156 88,934 Musquash . . 865,337 1,045,713 Nutria . . 836,725 560,046 Otter . . 17,825 145 Racoon . . 381,049 57,556 Sheep . . 421,390 348,809 Squirrel or Calabar 1,987,965 1,872,594 Seal . . . 772,695 771,388