WONDERS OF FUR SALE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 106, 26 June 1911, Page 5

WONDERS OF FUR SALE.

WHERE DO ALL THE PELTS COME FROM? An interesting sight in London is one of tiio great periodical sales of raw skins and furs held at a fur warehouse in the city. The magnitude of the trade and the vast amount of money involved would surprise anyone who i isitsd one of these sales for the first time. At the premises in Great Queen Street one can wander from floor t* door piled with thousands upon thousands of skins until one begins to woudei whero ali the creatures they once clothed lived. Upon the “boar floor,” for instance, some 10,000 Russian bear skins are at times to be seen. These, however, represent only the number which is tc; be disposed of at a single sale. Some of tho smaller and commoner si ins, such as racoon and opossum, aie handled by the million. Skins of foxes of various species are imported in vast quantities, and it seems marvellous that so many of theso wily creatures are secured by tho hunters. Tho prices of fox skin range, from a tew shillings each up to huge sums for a skin of tho king of all furs, tho exquisite silver fox. As much as 2500 dollars has been paid for a single costly skin, which can found in fairly 'largo quantities utmost sales in the Russian sable. In many poits of the world anir.als are reared and farmed eitliei partially or solely on account of then, furs. Thus in Switzerland enormous numbers of goats of a special breed are kept upon tho mountains, their si ins being utilised generally for iicartnrugUand motor clothing. Rabbit skins, too, are of so much corrineicial value that the breeders or Dutch rabbits make a special study of the colour and textuie of the furs. The most wonderful fur farms in the world are to be found upon the v ild ’ islands which dot Prince William’s Sound, off the inhospitable coast of Alaska. In these far northern regions enterprising individuals have established colonies of blue Arctic foxes. These creatures cannot l e tamed, hut they are fed all the year round and trapped in special houses in the winter when their coats are in suitable condition. Occasionally a bundle of boa constrictors’ skins is sent over ior sale. They make good purses. The great sales are attended almost exclusively by the '‘trade,” as the skins are all impoited in the raw state.