TWENTIETH-CENTURY FUR-TRADING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12536, 25 June 1901, Page 4

TWENTIETH-CENTURY FUR-TRADING.

In “ Cassell’s Magazine ” for April Mr Bickles Wilson tells (ho story of the wonderful collection of furs which in each year are gathered for sale by the, Hudson Bay Company. Of the London warehouse he says: “ Here in a row, depending from nails, the visitor perceives the most, precious treasures of the Hudson Bay Company's collection. What diamonds are to the jeweller, these particular skins arc to the fur trade. For so rare were the skins of the silver fox in 1899 that only 555 were garnered by the white and Indian trappers tof the North-West. It is not contended that the silver fox is the most beautiful of furs (other tastes prefer the sable, the marten, and (he fcitt fox) ; but in 1899 the price, which had been yearly rising, reached the figure, at the March sales on College Hill, of £370 for a single skin. In 1900 one skin fetched £6OO, and the price is said to show no signs of lowering, so that the forthcoming sale may instance an increase even upon this astonishing figure for a small undressed skin. “ The insight which these fur buyers possess is really marvellous. One of them, a Russian, is able, by merely handling this or that fur, to tell the country, and even the exact district, of its origin. Occasionally he is obliged to have recourse to the sense of smell in order to pronounce an opinion ; but he is rarely deceived. Scores of such buyers are roaming the mammoth warehouse, each attired in a long white wrapper, each carrying a bulky catalogue in his hand, in whose pages he is careful to inscribe the necessary particulars relating to each skin or batch of skins whose acquisition appears to him desirable. .“ Nimble attendants bring him the pelts, placing them upon ope of the many long tables for examination, and it is diverting to note the pride with which certain of the furs are brought forth by the attendants —from which it is evident that the Company’s borne servants are experts in furs too, and that they are as equally alive to the beauties'Of a good fur as any furrier or Parisian connoisseur, belle, or exquisite.”