THE MOST VALUABLE FUR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 11

THE MOST VALUABLE FUR.

“The most valuable fur-bearing animal that walks on the earth.” said David Morrill, a fur buyer who has been in the business more than forty years, “is tho black fox of Eastern North America. There is no fur in the world that can compare with this in beauty and durability. Now that fur seals are getting scarce, there is an occasional pelt that will bring 50dollars, though such skins are rare. There are silver gray foxes that wear coats that will bring 300 dollars to 600 dollars, according to the size and fineness of texture. 4. “The celebrated Russian silver grays are good, but the best ones produced in Europe are worth no more than onetenth the price received for the American kind. In fact, the only difference between the American silver gray and tho American black fox is that the former has a blotch of gray on the rump the size of a pail cover, all tho rest being coal black. If one saw an American silver gray of first quality ‘side to' he could not distinguish it from a black-fox'until after it was shot and examined. This fact does not hinder tho hunters from shooting all the silver grays they can see, for a silver gray which is all black except its rump is valued at 800 dollars, which is surely worth the powder and shot. “A black fox is a very rare animal; so rare, indeed, that I have not purchased more than three in my years of collecting pelts. I am convinced that there are several black foxes in Maine to-day, though I do not know where they roam, and if I did I would not reveal their habitation until after I had hunted for them. As near as I can. make out there have never been any black foxes west of the Penobscot river. I have never heard of any in Maine, except along the coast between. Orland and Elastport. There aro a few black foxes in New Brunswick, and I think they range from the eastern coast of Maine northward through New' Brunswick and so on to Labrador. “In general make-up the black fox does not differ from the common red fox. Both are about the same size, and their methods of life are seemingly identical. The distinction lies in. the pelt, not in tho colour alone, but in the fineness of fur, in the brilliancy of individual hairs .and in the density. “The pelt of a black fox killed between December and March is valued at 800 dollars to 1500 dollars, the price depending on the size. There is nothing in tho fur line that can compare with tho value of such pelts. The heaviest skin ever taken from a black fox would not weigh more than throe pounds before it was dried, and when ono is paying for fur at the rate of 600 dollars a pound, he seems to bo giving full value. “Not more than three or four skins reach the markets of the world in a year. If all the black fox skins that had been taken since the Declaration of Independence was signed were to be brought together and made iip into overcoats there would not bo enough to fit out President Roosevelt and his- Cabinet. It I owned 10CO black fox skins to-day I should bo worth 1,000,000 dollars, with several thousands loft over. “Who buys them? Well, that depends. Now and then some American millionaire who has more money than he knows how to pend will buy black fox furs for hia wife, though as a rule tho best ones go to Europe at last after passing from hand to hand.”