Islands, Alaska, north-west coast of America, Copper Island of the Aleutian group near to Kamschatka, Robben Island and Japan. Other kinds are taken from the South Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, around Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands up to Lobos Islands at the entrance of the La Plata river, off the Cape of Good Hope and Crozet Isles. With, however, the exception of the pick of the Lobos Island seals the fur of the southern sea seals is very poor and only suitable for the cheapest market. Formerly many skins were obtained from New Zealand and Australia, but the importation is now small and the quality not good. The preparation of seal skin occupies a longer time than any other fur skin, but its fine rich effect when finished and its many properties of warmth and durability well repay it. Value 10s. to 2325.

SEAL, HAIR.-There are several varieties of these seals in the seas stretching north from Scotland, around Newfoundland, Greenland and the north-west coast of America, and they are far more numerous than fur seals. Generally they have coarse rigid hair and none possess any underwool. They are taken principally for the oil and leather they yield. Some of the better haired sorts are dyed black and brown and used for men's motor coats when quite a waterproof garment is wanted, and they are used also for this quality in China. The young of the Greenland seals are called whitecoats on account of the early growth being of a yellowish white colour; the hair is to I in. long, and at this early stage of their life is soft compared to that of the older seals. These fur skins are dyed black or dark brown and are used for military caps and hearth-rugs. Value 2s. to 155. There are fewer hair seals in the southern than in the northern seas. SHEEP. Vary much in size and in quality of wool. Many of the domestic kind in central and northern Europe and Canada are used for drivers' and peasants' coat linings, &c. In Great Britain many coats of the home-reared sheep, having wools two and a half to five inches long, are dyed various colours and used as floor rugs. Skins with very short wool are dyed black and used for military saddlecloths. The bulk, however, is used in the wool trade. The Hungarian peasants are very fond of their natural brown sheep coats, the leather side of which is not lined, but embellished by a very close fancy embroidery, worked upon the leather itself; these garments are reversible, the fur being worn inside when the weather is cold. Chinese sheep are largely used for cheap rugs. Value of English sheep from 3s. to 10s.

SKUNK OF BLACK MARTEN.-Size 15X8 in. The underwool is full and fairly close with glossy, flowing top hair about 2 in. long. The majority have two stripes of white hair, extending the whole length of the skin, but these are cut out by the manufacturing furrier and sold to the dealers in pieces for exportation. The animals are found widely spread throughout North and South America. The skins which are of the greatest interest to the European trade are those from North America, the South American species being small, coarse and generally brown. The best skins come from Ohio and New York. If it were not for its disagreeable odour, skunk would be worth much more than the usual market value, as it is naturally the blackest fur, silky in appearance and most durable. The improved dressing processes have to a large extent removed the naturally pungent scent. The fur is excellent for stoles, boas, collars, cuffs, muffs and trimmings. Value is. 6d. to 11s.

SOUSLIK.-Size 7 in. X2. Is a small rodent found in the south of Russia and also in parts of America. It has very short hair and is a poor fur even for the cheapest linings, which is the only use to which the skin could be put. It is known as kaluga when imported in ready-made linings from Russia where the skins are dressed and worked in an inferior way. Value Id. to 3d. SQUIRREL.-Size 10XS in. This measurement refers to the Russian and Siberian sorts, which are the only kind imported for the fur. The numerous other species are too poor in their coats to attract notice from fur dealers. The back of the Russian squirrel has an even close fur varying from a clear bluish-grey to a reddishbrown, the bellies in the former being of a flat quality and white, in the latter yellowish. The backs are worked into linings separately, as are the bellies or "locks." The pelts, although very light, are tough and durable, hence their good reputation for linings for ladies' walking or driving coats. The best skins also provide excellent material for coats, capes, stoles, ties, collars, cuffs, gloves, muffs, hoods and light-weight carriage aprons. The tails are dark and very small, and when required for ends of boas three or four are made as one. Value per skin from 24d. to Is. Id.

TIBET LAMB.-Size 27 X 13 in. These pretty animals have a long, very fine, silky and curly fleece of a creamy white. The majority are consigned to the trade auction sales in London ready dressed and worked into cross-shaped coats, and the remainder, a fourth of the total, come as dressed skins. They are excellent for trimmings of evening mantles and for children's ties, muffs and perambulator aprons. The fur is too long and bulky for linings. Value per skin from 4s. 6d. to 8s. 6d. TIGER.-Size varies considerably, largest about 10 ft. from nose to root of tail. Tigers are found throughout India, Turkestan, China, Mongolia and the East Indies. The coats of the Bengal kind are short and of a dark orange brown with black stripes, those from cast or further India are similar in colour, but longer in the hair, while those from north of the Himalayas and the mountains of China are not only huge in size, but have a very long soft hair of delicate

1

orange brown with very white flanks, and marked generally with the blackest of stripes. The last are of a noble appearance and exceed. ingly scarce. They all make handsome floor rugs. Value of the Indian from £3 to £15. £10 to £65.

"

Chinese

VICUNA is a species of long-necked sheep native to South America, bearing some resemblance to the guanaco, but the fur is shorter, closer and much finer. The colour is a pale golden-brown and the fur is held in great repute in South America for carriage rugs. The supply is evidently small as the prices are high. There is scarcely a commercial quotation in London, few coming in except from private sources. 2s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. may be considered as the average value. WALLABY.-See Kangaroo, above.

WALLAROO.-See Kangaroo, above.

WOLF.-Size 50X25 in. Is closely allied to the dog tribe and, like the jackals, is found through a wide range of the world,-North and South America, Europe and Asia. Good supplies are available from North America and Siberia and a very few from China. The best are the full furred ones of a very pale bluish-grey with fine flowing black top hair, which are obtained from the Hudson Bay district. Those from the United States and Asia are harsher in quality and browner. A few black American specimens come into the market, but usually the quality is poor compared to the lighter furred animal. The Siberian is smaller than the North American and the Russian still smaller. Besides the wolf proper a large number of prairie or dog wolves from America and Asia are used for cheaper rugs. In size they are less than half that of a large wolf and are of a motley sandy colour. Numbers of the Russian are retained for home use. The finest wolves are very light weighted and most suitable for carriage aprons, in fact, ideal for the purpose, though lacking the strength of some other furs. Wolves value 2s. 6d. to 64s.

Dog wolves. IS. to 2s. 6d. WOLVERINE.-Size 16X18 in. Is native to America, Siberia, Russia and Scandinavia and generally partakes of the nature of a bear. The underwool is full and thick with strong and bright top hair about 2 in. long. The colour is of two or three shades of brown in one skin, the centre being an oval dark saddle, edged as it were with quite a pale tone and merging to a darker one towards the flanks. This peculiar character alone stamps it as a distinguished fur, in addition to which it has the excellent advantage of being the most durable fur for carriage aprons, as well as the richest in colour. It is not prolific, added to which it is very difficult to match a number of skins in quality as well as colour. Hence it is an expensive fur, but its excellent qualities make it valuable. The darkest of the least coarse skins are worth the most. Prices from 6s. to 37s.

WOMBAT, KOALA or AUSTRALIAN BEAR.-Size 20X12 in. Has light grey or brown close thick wool half an inch deep without any top hair, with a rather thick spongy pelt. It is quite inexpensive and only suitable for cheap rough coats, carriage rugs, perambulator aprons and linings for footbags. The coats are largely used in western America and Canada. Value 3d. to Is. 84d.

Preparing and Dressing.-A furrier or skin merchant must value on this subtle matter solely (in the rarer precious sorts, possess a good eye for colour to be successful, the difference in especially sables, natural black, silver and blue fox, sea otters, chinchillas, fine mink, &c.) being so considerable that not only a practised but an intuitive sense of colour is necessary to accurately determine the exact merits of every skin. In addition to this a knowledge is required of what the condition of a pelt should be; a good judge knows by experience whether a skin will turn out soft and strong, after dressing, and whether the hair is in the best condition of strength and beauty. The dressing of the pelt or skin that is to be preserved for fur is totally different to the making of leather; in the latter tannic acid is used, but never should be with a fur skin, as is so often done by natives of districts where a regular fur trade is not carried on. The results of applying tannic acid are to harden the pelt and discolour and weaken the fur. The best methods for dressing fur skins are those of a tawer or currier, the aim being to retain all the natural oil in the pelt, in order to preserve the natural colour of the fur, and to render the pelt as supple as possible. Generally the skins are placed in an alkali bath, then by hand with a blunt wooden instrument the moisture of the pelt is worked out and it is drawn carefully to and fro over a straight, dull-edged knife to remove any superfluous flesh and unevenness. Special grease is then rubbed in and the skin placed in a machine which softly and continuously beats in the softening mixture, after which it is put into a slowly revolving drum, fitted with wooden paddles, partly filled with various kinds of fine hard sawdust according to the nature of the furs dealt with. This process with a moderate degree of heat thoroughly cleans it of external greasy matter,

With regard to the merits of European dressing, it may be fairly taken that English, German and French dressers have specialities of excellence. In England, for instance, the dressing of sables, martens, foxes, otters, seals, bears, lions, tigers and leopards is first rate; while with skunk, mink, musquash, chinchillas, beavers, lambs and squirrels, the Germans show better results, particularly in the last. The pelt after the German dressing is dry, soft and white, which is due to a finishing process where meal is used, thus they compare favourably with the moister and consequently heavier English finish. In France they do well with cheaper skins, such as musquash, rabbit and hare, which they dye in addition to dressing. Russian dressing is seldom reliable; not only is there an unpleasant odour, but in damp weather the pelts often become clammy, which is due to the saline matter in the dressing mixture. Chinese dressing is white and supple, but contains much powder, which is disagreeable and difficult to get rid of, and in many instances the skin is rendered so thin that the roots of the fur are weakened, which means that it is liable to shed itself freely, when subject to ordinary friction in handling or wearing. American and Canadian dressing is gradually improving, but hitherto their results have been inferior to the older European methods.

In the case of seal and beaver skins the process is a much more difficult one, as the water or hard top hairs have to be removed by hand after the pelt has been carefully rendered moist and warm. With seal skins the process is longer than with any other fur preparation and the series of processes engage many specialists, each man being constantly kept upon one section of the work. The skins arrive simply salted. After being purchased at the auction sales they are washed, then stretched upon a hoop, when all blubber and unnecessary flesh is removed, and the pelt is reduced to an equal thickness, but not so thin as it is finally rendered. Subsequently the hard top hairs are taken out as in the case of otters and beavers and the whole thoroughly cleaned in the revolving drums. The close underwool, which is of a slightly wavy nature and mostly of a pale drab colour, is then dyed by repeated applications of a rich dark brown colour, one coat after another, each being allowed to thoroughly dry before the next is put on, till the effect is almost a lustrous black on the top. The whole is again put through the cleaning process and evenly reduced in thickness by revolving emery wheels, and eventually finished off in the palest buff colour.

The English dye for seals is to-day undoubtedly the best; its constituents are more or less of a trade secret, but the principal ingredients comprise gall nuts, copper dust, camphor and antimony, and it would appear after years of careful watching that the atmosphere and particularly the water of London are partly responsible for good and lasting results. The Paris dyers do excellent work in this direction, but the colour is not so durable, probably owing to a less pure water. In America of late, strides have been made in seal dyeing, but preference is still given to London work. In Paris, too, they obtain beautiful results in the topping" or colouring Russian sables and the Germans are particularly successful in dyeing Persian lambs black and foxes in all blue, grey, black and smoke colours and in the insertion of white hairs in imitation of the real silver fox. Small quantities of good beaver are dyed in Russia occasionally, and white hairs put in so well that an effect similar to sea otter is obtained.

The process of inserting white hairs is called in the trade 'pointing," and is either done by stitching them in with a needle or by adhesive caoutchouc.

The Viennese are successful in dyeing marmot well, and their cleverness in colouring it with a series of stripes to represent the natural markings of sable which has been done after the garments have been made, so as to obtain symmetry of lines, has secured for them a large trade among the dealers of cheap furs in England and the continent.

Manufacturing Methods and Specialities.—In the olden times

of furriers and skin dressers established under royal charter granted by Edward III At that period the chief concern of the body was to prevent buyers from being imposed upon by sellers who were much given to offering old furs as new; a century later the Skinners' Company received other charters empowering them to inspect not only warehouses and open markets, but workrooms. In 1667 they were given power to scrutinize the preparing of rabbit or cony wool for the wool trade and the registration of the then customary seven years' apprenticeship. To-day all these privileges and powers are in abeyance, and the interest that they took in the fur trade has been gradually transferred to the leather-dressing craft.

The work done by English furriers was generally good, but since about 1865 has considerably improved on account of the influx of German workmen, who have long been celebrated for excellent fur work, being in their own country obliged to satisfy officially appointed experts and to obtain a certificate of capacity before they can be there employed. The French influence upon the trade has been, and still is, primarily one of style and combination of colour, bad judgment in which will mar the beauty of the most valuable furs. It is a recognized law among high-class furriers that furs should be simply arranged, that is, that an article should consist of one fur or of two furs of a suitable contrast, to which lace may be in some cases added with advantage. As illustrative of this, it may be explained that any brown tone of fur such as sable, marten, mink, black marten, beaver, nutria, &c., will go well upon black or very dark-brown furs, while those of a white or grey nature, such as ermine, white lamb, chinchilla, blue fox, silver fox, opossum, grey squirrel, grey lamb, will set well upon seal or black furs, as Persian lamb, broadtail, astrachan, caracul lamb, &c. White is also permissible upon some light browns and greys, but brown motley colours and greys should never be in contrast. One neutralizes the other and the effect is bad. The qualities, too have to be considered― the fulness of one, the flatness of the other, or the coarseness or fineness of the furs. The introduction of a third fur in the same garment or indiscriminate selection of colours of silk linings, braids, buttons, &c., often spoils an otherwise good article.

With regard to the natural colours of furs, the browns that command the highest prices are those that are of a bluish rather than a reddish tendency. With greys it is those that are bluish, not yellow, and with white those that are purest, and with black the most dense, that are most esteemed and that are the rarest.

Perhaps for ingenuity and the latest methods of manipulating skins in the manufacturing of furs the Americans lead the way, but as fur cutters are more or less of a roving and cosmopolitan character the larger fur businesses in London, Berlin, Vienna, St Petersburg, Paris and New York are guided by the same thorough and comparatively advanced principles.

During the period just mentioned the tailors' methods of scientific pattern cutting have been adopted by the leading furriers in place of the old chance methods of fur cutters, so that to-day a fur garment may be as accurately and gracefully fitted as plush or velvet, and with all good houses a material pattern is fitted and approved before the skins are cut.

Through the advent of German and American fur sewingmachines since about 1890 fur work has been done better and cheaper. There are, however, certain parts of a garment, such as the putting in of sleeves and placing on of collars, &c., that can only be sewn by hand. For straight seams the machines are excellent, making as neat a seam as is found in glove work, unless, of course, the pelts are especially heavy, such as bears and sheep rugs.

A very great feature of German and Russian work is the fur linings called rotondes, sacques or plates, which are made for their home use and exportation chiefly to Great Britain, America and France.

In Weissenfels, near Leipzig, the dressing of Russian grey squirrel and the making it into linings is a gigantic industry, and is the principal support of the place. After the dressing process the backs of the squirrels are made up separately from the under

and thinner white and grey parts, the first being known as squirrelback and the other as squirrel-lock linings. A few linings are made from entire skins and others are made from the quite white pieces, which in some instances are spotted with the black ear tips of the animals to resemble ermine. The smaller and uneven pieces of heads and legs are made up into linings, so there is absolutely no waste. Similar work is done in Russia on almost as extensive a scale, but neither the dressing nor the work is so good as the German.

The majority of heads, gills or throats, sides or flanks, paws and pieces of skins cut up in the fur workshops of Great Britain, America and France, weighing many tons, are chiefly exported to Leipzig, and made up in neighbouring countries and Greece, where labour can be obtained at an alarmingly low rate. Although the sewing, which is necessarily done by hand, the sections being of so unequal and tortuous a character, is rather roughly executed, the matching of colours and qualities is excellent. The enormous quantities of pieces admit of good selection and where odd colours prevail in a lining it is dyed. Many squirrellock linings are dyed blue and brown and used for the outside of cheap garments. They are of little weight, warm and effective, but not of great durability.

The principal linings are as follows: Sable sides, sable heads and paws, sable gills, mink sides, heads and gills, marten sides, heads and gills, Persian lamb pieces and paws, caracul lamb pieces or paws, musquash sides and heads, nutria sides, genet pieces, raccoon sides or flanks, fox sides, kolinski whole skins, and small rodents as kaluga and hamster. The white stripes cut out of skunks are made into rugs.

Another great source of inexpensive furs is China, and for many years past enormous quantities of dressed furs, many of which are made up in the form of linings and Chinese looseshaped garments, have been imported by England, Germany and France for the lower class of business; the garments are only regarded as so much fur and are reworked. With, however, the exception of the best white Tibet lambs, the majority of Chinese furs can only be regarded as inferior material. While the work is often cleverly done as to matching and manipulation of the pelt which is very soft, there are great objections in the odour and the brittleness or weakness of the fur. One of the most remarkable results of the European intervention in the Boxer rising in China (1900) was the absurd price paid for so-called "loot" of furs, particularly in mandarins' coats of dyed and natural fox skins and pieces, and natural ermine, poor in quality and yellowish in colour; from three to ten times their value was paid for them when at the same time huge parcels of similar quality were warehoused in the London docks, because purchasers could not be found for them.

With regard to Japanese furs, there is little to commend them. The best are a species of raccoon usually sold as fox, and, being of close long quality of fur, they are serviceable for boas, collars, muffs and carriage aprons. The sables, martens, minks and otters are poor in quality, and all of a very yellow colour and they are generally dyed for the cheap trade. A small number of very pretty guanaco and vicuna carriage rugs are imported into Europe, and many come through travellers and private sources, but generally they are so badly dressed that they are quite brittle upon the leather side. Similar remarks are applicable to opossum rugs made in Australia. From South Africa a quantity of jackal, hyena, fox, leopard and sheep karosses i.e. a peculiarly shaped rug or covering used by native chiefs, is privately brought over. The skins are invariably tanned and beautifully sewn, the furs are generally flat in quality and not very strong in the hair, and are retained more as curiosities than for use as a warm covering.

Hallers' Furs and Cloths and Shawls.-The hat trade is largely interested in the fur piece trade, the best felt hats being made from beaver and musquash wool and the cheaper sorts from nutria, hare and rabbit wools. For weaving, the most valuable pieces are mohair taken from the angora and vicuna. They are limited in quantity and costly, and the trade depends upon various sorts of other sheep and goat wools for the bulk of its productions.

Frauds and Imitations.-The opportunities for cheating in the fur trade are very considerable, and most serious frauds have been perpetrated in the selling of sables that have been coloured or "topped "; that is, just the tips of the hairs stained dark to represent more expensive skins. It is only by years of experience that some of these colourings can be detected. Where the skins are heavily dyed it is comparatively easy to see the difference between a natural and a dyed colour, as the underwool and top hair become almost alike and the leather is also dark, whereas in natural skins the base of the underwool is much paler than the top, or of a different colour, and the leather is white unless finished in a pale reddish tone as is sometimes the case when mahogany sawdust is used in the final cleaning. As has been explained, sable is a term applied for centuries past to the darker sorts of the Russian Siberian martens, and for years past the same term has been bestowed by the retail trade upon the American and Canadian martens. The baum and stone martens caught in France, the north of Turkey and Norway are of the same family, but coarser in underwool and the top hair is less in quantity and not so silky. The kolinski, or as it is sometimes styled Tatar sable, is the animal, the tail of which supplies hair for artists' brushes. This is also of the marten species and has been frequently offered, when dyed dark, as have baum and stone martens, as Russian sables. Hares, too, are dyed a sable colour and advertised as sable. The fur, apart from a clumsy appearance, is so brittle, however, as to be of scarcely any service whatever.

Among the principal imitations of other furs is musquash, out of which the top hair has been pulled and the undergrowth of wool clipped and dyed exactly the same colour as is used for seal, which is then offered as seal or red river seal. Its durability, however, is far less than that of seal. Rabbit is prepared and dyed and frequently offered as "electric sealskin." Nutria also is prepared to represent sealskin, and in its natural colour, after the long hairs are plucked out, it is sold as otter or beaver. The wool is, however, poor compared to the otter and beaver, and the pelt thin and in no way comparable to them in strength. White hares are frequently sold as white fox, but the fur is weak, brittle and exceedingly poor compared to fox and possesses no thick underwool. Foxes, too, and badger are dyed a brownish black, and white hairs inserted to imitate silver fox, but the white hairs are too coarse and the colour too dense to mislead any one who knows the real article. But if sold upon its own merits, pointed fox is a durable fur.

Garments made of sealskin pieces and Persian lamb pieces are frequently sold as if they were made of solid skins, the term "pieces" being simply suppressed. The London Chamber of Commerce have issued to the British trade a notice that any misleading term in advertising and all attempts at deception are illegal and offenders are liable under the Merchandise Marks Act 1887.

have been preserved in cold storage, but it is only within a recent period owing to the difficulty there was in obtaining the necessary perfectly dry atmosphere, that dressed and madeup furs have been preserved by freezing. Furs kept in such a condition are not only immune from the ravages of the larvae of moth, but all the natural oils in the pelt and fur are conserved, so that its colour and life are prolonged, and the natural deterioration is arrested. Sunlight has a tendency to bleach furs and to encourage the development of moth eggs, therefore continued exposure is to be avoided. When furs are wetted by rain they should be well shaken and allowed to dry in a current of air without exposure to sun or open fire.

Where a freezing store for furs is not accessible, furs should be well shaken and afterwards packed in linen and kept in a perfectly cool dry place, and examined in the summer at periods of not less than five weeks. Naphthalene and the usual malodorous powders are not only very disagreeable, but quite useless. Any chemical that is strong enough to destroy the life in a moth egg would also be sufficiently potent to injure the fur itself. In England moth life is practically continuous all the year round, that is, as regards those moths that attack furs, though the destructive element exists to a far greater extent during spring and summer.

Comparative Durability of Various Furs and Weight of Unlined Skins per Square Fool.

The following estimates of durability refer to the use of fur when made up "hair outside" in garments or stoles, not as a lining. The durability of fur used as linings, which is affected by other conditions, is set forth separately. Otter, with its water hairs removed, the strongest of furs for external use, is, in this table, taken as the standard at 100 and other furs marked accordingly:The Precious Furs.

Musquash

55

Nutria

40

Weight in oz. per sq. ft.

Weight

Points of in oz. per Durability.

sq. ft.

Moleskin

Persian Lamb

Grey

Broadtail

37

100

311

90

Durability and Weight of Motoring Furs made up with Fur outside. Otter with the water hairs, the strongest fur suited for motoring garments, is taken as the standard.

Weight in oz. per

30

15

10

15

25

Stout, old-fashioned boxcloth is almost the only cloth that (after a soft, heavy lining has been added to it) affords even two

"Hair Sealskin" (tinted) with water hairs (a special variety of seal).

Raccoon

Points of Durability.

sq. ft.

100

4

80

3

75

65

35

342