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Show WEBmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmwmwmmmmmmmmw Z lB IH' ' 1 WiM . . ; o . w . - h I Sea Otter and Mole Skins Extremes in $8,000,000 Fur Sale Pelts of Water Animals Common in John Jacob Astor's Time Now Are Rarest ; of All Known to the Trade I New York Saturday. T MAGINE, If" you can, a parade of tiny h I moles marching In flle formation. I closed up, that would reach from CItv I JTall to a point almost within the shadow of Independence Hall In Philadelphia. Or, If ' Jtwould be easier for you, imagine that to Svcry mnn. woman and child in aclty the rise of Cleveland has been rircsentUS- pair of the little pelts, with an extra one here and there for particularly good children. . Having thus cxerclned your Imaginative y poworo you will have visualized, but only In part, tho great number of moleskins that will b required l;j tho coming monthH of the manufacturing season to meet the demands I . of American women for tno various gar- fj wonts mado of this fur. Also you will havo obtained an Idea of the quantity of molo j pelts dlnposed of at tho nnnunl spring sale of : I raw furs in thin city. In round numbers thcro wero more (ha- . 200,000 of them, na-J na-J f;nbled from all countries of the world in I ' which the mole Is found, and they comprised the largest slnglo collection, so far as known. I that has yet been sold at an auction sale t ny where. The Other Extreme. At tho other end of n long list of furs, valued at about J8.000.000. which were put under the hammer during the sale, wero three ! sea otters. Now sea ptters are as rare as moles are plentiful. They also contrast In slz'- to about the snme degroe they do In numbers extant; likewise In value. For whllo moles are among the cheaper furs because of the very limited size of the pelts when' ready for manufacture sea otters, owing to their great length, scarcity and beauty, nre the most valuable of all skins when In prime condition. The average sea otter will run j four to five feet in lo.igth, not counting tho 1 tall, but the biggest of the three which were '"" i sold hore measured seven feet. The next l2 ri largest was only two inches shorter, and the 1. third one was also of more than average length. The finest of the three skins brought $1,300. , Sea otters aro unique among tho water animals In that they do not feed on fish. Of this and other peculiar traits they possess II. W. Elliott. In "An Arctic Province." Tho &ca otter seldom visits the shore, and then only when the weather is abnormally ab-normally stormy at son Instead of being be-ing a flah eater. It feeds almost wholly upon cla ms. crabs, mussels and 'sea urchins,' ur-chins,' as might be .'nferrcd from Its peculiar pe-culiar flat molars of dentition. "The sea otter mother clasps her young to her breast between her forcpaws. and stretches herself at rull length on her bnck In the ocean when she desires to sleep, and she suckles it also In this position. The pup cannot live without Its mother, though frequent attempts havo been made by hunters to raise them, for the. llttlo animals aro very often captured allvo and wholly I uninjured; but. like eomo other animals, i thoy ccm to be so deoply imbued with fear or dislike of men that they Invariably die of self-imposed starvation." So great Is the scarcity of sea otters at tho present timo that, according to experienced fur men. thero are now not more than forty or fifty completo pelts in tho United States. Ever since the early years of tho nineteenth century they have been dwindling steadily, due to tho way In which they havo been killed off during that period and to certain characteristics which mllltato' against rapid breeding. The chief of these characteristics la that they are not polygamous, In. John Jacob Astor's Time. In the days when tho original John Jacob Astor engaged In tho China trade, however, sea otters were plentiful enough. Biographers Biog-raphers of Mr. Astor say that ho began exporting ex-porting furs to China In JS00. and that ho continued to ship them there, along with other merchandise, until about 1S17. On one occasion he Is eald to haVo shipped eastward more sea otter polurln a single cargo than can now bo obtained In the entire world. These skins, which wero in high favor with the wealthy Chinese of that, day, in mora modem times were used to a large extent as collars on tho wonderfully fine sable coats worn by members of tho former Russian royal family, ths various nobles and by other Russians of great wealth. On tho same day that the, sea otters were sold there was also disposed of a collection of more than 1.(100 Russian sables. Many of these skins wero of unusually fine quality, and among them were several of tho so-called so-called crown sables. In the days of tho Czar, according to authorities in th? fur trade, the finest sables wero always reserved re-served for the uso of tho Imperial family, thus obtaining the crown designation. Xot only was it Illegal to export skins of that quality but for a commoner merely 'o possess them meant severe punishment if discovered. With the passing of the old regime, .however, these restrictions went into limbo. Sables Always in Favor. because of their wondbrful richness sables have always been In high favor with women of wealth. Not only nro thoy popular for spring and summer wear with those who can offord them 'but they aro nlso mado up into gorgeous wraps and coats for winter use. From time to time sable coats of greats beautv and value have been illustrated and described- In tho newspapers. The latest of these lo gain prominence, through tho wonderful won-derful richness of tho skins In It, was recently re-cently presented by a Yokohama' business man to his wife. Together with a stole to match, the value of this coat Is placed at JPJO.noo. Five years searching by the keenest trappers In Russia wore said tc bo required to obtain tho 1D0 perfect and perfectly per-fectly matched skins In the two pieces If the average fur mnn were to read nowadays now-adays Hint a silver fox skin had been sold for S2.fi0 he would think thnt the prlt was o:r,ier little more lhan a rag or that the compositor had mistakenly put a decimal point In the place of a comma and had dropped a final cipher from tho amount paid. Yet thero nre authentic cases on record In which prime silver foxes have brought only $2.50 per pelL That happened, however. 1C0 years ago in the vicinity of St. John. Now c7. GORDON NOAKETS FUfi, , HOLDING SEA OTTER PELTS VALl)rn -33 mo Snd $ lt OBS . DAN COLLIER , JR HOLCJNG MOEsfoNS tAq SMALLEST PURS SOLD. ZG Brunswick. In the days when tno oeaver skin was. tho .basis unit of value In fur trading. A history of the placo and tho time written by a Rev. Dr. Raymond 3aya: "Under a treaty mado with the Indians hereabout over 160 years ago, when tho English were gradually assuming control of this territory, tho place of currency was filled b beaver skins at the unit rato of ono beaver to five shillings, which is equal to onv dollar to-day. Imaglno a scale of prices for rich, natural furs like this: One mooso skin, $1.50. or a beaver and a half. Ono bear 6kln, $1.30, or a beaver and a third. Thrco sablo skins. SI, or one beaver. Six mink sklne. $1, or otic boavcr. jut) sliver re dlcin. $2.50, or two Delivers and a half. Black fox skin. $2, or two beavers. Red fox skin. 50 cents, or one-half beaver. Otter skin, $1, or ono beaver. Mink skin, 15 cents, or fraction of a beaver. Musquash (muskrat) skin. 10 cents, or one-tenth of a beaver. Nowadays the combined prices of all of the above would scarcely pay for two primo l:rowr muskrat pelts, for the best musk-rats musk-rats Just 60ld here fetched $5.05 each. Although with the rather limited markot that exists for silver fox due to their high cost and tho progress that has been made In breeding them in recent years on farms-or Beavers Rank Among Ancient and Honbrables y: IH for Their Part in History ,-The IH "Paddy Melon" a Puzzler H ranches raw silver fox skins no longer bring the figures that were paid even as recently as ten years ago upon skins of wild foxes; it takes a pretty wealthy person these days to give many silver pelts away for Christmas Christ-mas presents Thu up to date silver fox farms are models of comfort (for tho animals) and efficiency. Most of them are electric lighted, carefully Kept and In every way regulated so as to produce the most perfect types of pelt. The largo farms have resident managers and veterinary surgeons, watchmen, packs of watchdogs and electric burglar 'alarms. Feeding the Fox. Great care is given to the choice and prep-oration prep-oration of food for foxes of all ages on tho best ranches. Although the fox. like the dog. Is none too fastidious In regard to what it will eat experience has shown that certain rules of diet must be followed if the health of the animals, which is so necessary for the production of prime skins. Is to be. maintained. main-tained. Various kinds of meat are given them, ranging from frozen Jackrabblts to tho flesh of old horses, with such occasional tidbits as beef. Iamb or pork. This Is supplemented supple-mented with biscuits, coarse bread, vegetables, vegeta-bles, oatmeal, berries, apples, milk, eggs and grass. Tho general piactlcc is to feed the foxes LWlce a day, although somo farmers prefer a slnglo feeding. When the animals aro re?dy for killing they are put on a special diet to glvo the desired sheen to the fur. This dleB Includes boiled barley, oats, honey or & proprietary stock food. The yearly feeding charges aro estimated at from $40 to $75 a pair. Only recently considerable attention has hecn attracted In upper New York State by tho appearance of on advertisement of a fox farm near tho Canadian boundary asking for tabby cats with kittens. These cats aro wanted to sucklo baby silver foxes during tno urst six wccks or. ineir uic, anu me owners of tho ranch will rent them for the period at $2.50 each. Later the cats will be returned to their owners. Tho reason for wanting tho cats Is that they will put an end to losses sustained through the deaths of taby foxc3 that arise from tho unwillingness unwill-ingness of tho females to permit their offspring off-spring to be handled by tho caretakers. This unwillingness frequently causes tho mother foxes to hide their young, sometimes with disastrous results to tho latter. It has been found that silver foxos can bo safely mated when about six months old and that they will breed frequently at the age of nine months. A single femalo will hear from eight to ten litters during her life.-carh life.-carh ranging from two to seven pups. In come cases a fox family numbers from eight !o nlrc. but the average Is nearer three .or four. Contrary to tho almost general opinion, cx-poit cx-poit silver fox breeders say that ranch raleed skins aro superior to those of tho wild animals. The ranch foxes are scientifically scien-tifically token care of and. it is asserted, the result of this care is shown In tho resiliency of the fur. the length of the hair and tho fine color- In addition to this ranch skins arc said to bo more uniform In appearance IH and easier to match up. as tho breeding IH j-tock is carefully selected. jH No mention of a fur sale would bo com J plcto without putting beaver among the "an- jH clont and honorables.' -' For not only wero J these pelts used as currency In tho early. ' H days of the English occupation of Cannda H but heaver played a vital part In the estab- IH Hshlng of the fur business on this contl- IH ncnt. It might also be said that heaver has jH left Its imprint upon this city, too, for In H addition to holding a placo In tho seal of . jf Greater New York it Is prominent In the decorations of the Astor place station of tho H East SIdo subway, which bear silent wit- H ncss to tho early relations between the H Astor family and tho fur trade. H The first known participation of beaver H pelts in a fur auction was In the original H sale of tho Hudson's Bay Company in Lon- H don nearly 250 years ago. In that city on H January 24. 1GT2. 3.000 beavers were offored H for sale. At that time the skins were sold H by the pound, a good beaver weighing from H 1 pound to 21 ounces. Even as long ago as H thnt beaver brought from 36 to 55 shillings H a pound. In 1S54 the company disposed of ' IH 502,000 beaver skins In Its auctions at Lon- IH don and Edinburgh. SInco then tho num- jH ber of pelts available has decreased steadily. jH and about fifteen years ago less than. 50,000 H beavers were sold In London, In the salo just closed here there wero 9,900 beavers H purchased by dealers and manufacturers. H Among the other high spots of the sale H wero tho disposal of mora than slxty-ono H tons of Australian and New Zealand rabbit H skins, a large portion of which will be us?d H for tho making of men's soft hats. Then jH there wero about 24,000 tabby cats, which H aro ucd for a variety of purposes both In IH this country and Europe. Tho Aest of these. H skins now bring a great deal moro than ,a IH pr'mo brown muskrat formerly did, and tho H very choicest of the 24,000 netted $1.15 each. IJ "Paddy Mclor" Puzzles 'Em. I ast but not least came such things as 1 H tho kolinskys, tho golyaks. the wallaroos, H tl:o guanacos and the "paddy melons." Tho H last named, which Is described in tho fur trade as bolng tho only animal that got IH into tho Ark unknown to Noah, had every- body guessing as to Us identity until F. A. H Lucas director of the American Museum of H Natural History, carno to the rescue. Mr. Lucas announced, first of all, that lt must havo been an Improper spelling of the word IH that threw tho "sharps" off tho scent. As H anv rcto ho said that tho "paddy melon" wag H rcalJy tho "padamelon," and lie wont on to H 'descr;be it In this way: "Padamelon is the name applied to a small kangaroo or wallaby by tho settlers of New Sou to Wales and seems recently to havo H been revived. While It was applied orlq- J inully to one particular kind of kangaroo, it H Is probably applied to a number nowadays, Just as the term wallaby Is." And If any ono thinks Dr. Lucas Is wrong let him borrow a copy of Poland's well known tcok on fur bearing animals and look lt up. At least ono surprise will, bo In store Po- ( land calls It "paddy melon." , |