英文科学读本 第六册·Lesson 54 Furs

Lesson 54 Furs

Fur is Nature's covering for the animals which inhabit the colder regions of the world, and the more rigorous the climate, the more beautiful the fur-skins which it produces. Man, even in his primitive state, soon learned to set a high value on these skins as a clothing for himself, and in process of time he discovered a means of so dressing them as to prevent them from rotting, or the hair from falling off.

The inhabitants of very cold countries dress themselves today entirely in fur, or line their other clothing with it. We regard fur, because of its costliness, as a luxury for winter ornament; only the wealthy part of the community can afford to look upon it as a necessary article of clothing.

The fur-bearing animals include members of both the Carnivora and the Rodentia. The vast majority of them are wild animals, which are hunted and trapped in the most solitary regions of the earth, remote from the haunts of man. Their skins yield many varieties of fur, from the simple rabbit-skins worth two or three pence, to valuable furs which have been known to realise as much as £100 each.

Among the most beautiful and costly of these furs are the skins of the fox, racoon, bear, badger, wolverine, skunk, polecat, marten, stoat, mink, otter, and seal. Many varieties of foxes are killed every year for the sake of their fur, and all of them are highly prized.

Silver-fox is a rich, soft, handsome skin of thick dark fur, with long silvery-white overhair. A single skin will sometimes fetch as much as £20. Black-fox, another variety, is one of the most valuable furs which the world produces. It is rarely met with now, and consequently is even more expensive still; the price asked for a single skin frequently being no less than £40. The red-fox, grey-fox, kitt-fox, cross-fox, and Arctic fox are among the other varieties. The last named animal changes color in winter from a dark gray to pure white, and in this condition the skin is takes and prepared for the market. Most of the polar animals are more or less liable to this change.

The skin of the racoon furnishes a handsome grayish-red fur, much used in Germany and Russia as an inside lining for travelling coats.

Bears are found in many parts of the world, although their numbers are slowly and surely thinning before the steady march of settlement and civilization both in Europe and North America. Their skins all afford thick handsome furs. The black, brown, and grizzly bears belong to the forest and mountain regions, the last named being a powerful and ferocious beast peculiar to the Rocky Mountains. The polar bear is a sea animal; it inhabits the floating masses of ice, in the frozen seas of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

The American badger has a very soft, fine fur, fully 3.5 inches long. It is of a dark purplish-brown color, tipped with white, and mottled with black rings here and there. The fur of the European badger is coarser; it is mostly used for artists' brushes.

The wolverine, or glutton, is about the size of the badger. It has a soft, close, fur coat about an inch thick, with stiff overhairs fully 4 inches in length. It is much in request for muffs and victorines.

The skunk, or American polecat, has a long, soft, rich black fur, which for ladies' apparel rivals many of the higher priced furs. During its life-time this animal has the power of emitting a most offensive fluid from a small bag near the root of the tail.

This is its mode of defense against its enemies, and a very good one it is, for no animal can endure the nauseous stench. In preparing the skin for the market great care is necessary to avoid breaking the bag, and to ensure the rest of the fur being fit for use, a narrowstrip is cut out along the middle line of the back.

The weasel family is a numerous one, its members being small animals very similar to the polecat. Among the weasels the stoat or ermine is highly prized for its fur. In summer the fur is a bright, reddish-brown, but it changes to a pure white as winter comes on. This fur is much in demand for state purposes, for it has been adopted from very early times by royalty and nobility to adorn their robes of state. It is this fact alone which has given to ermine a value considerably above its merits as compared with many other kinds of fur.

The martens are closely allied to the weasels, and they too form a numerous and widely distributed family. The most valuable of them as regards its fur is the Siberian sable. In the summer the fur is reddish-brown with gray spots, but in the winter it changes to a full, dark brown. Its fineness and the soft rich lustre of its surface render it one of the most costly and beautiful of the furs. It can rarely be worn except by wealthy persons, because, in addition to its beauty, the difficulty of procuring it adds to its value. The animal is only to be met with in the coldest and most out-of-the-way, rugged places, and the trappers have to endure every hardship of hunger and cold, and at the same time to be constantly on their guard against wild beasts. No less than £20, £30, and even £40 must often be given for a single skin.

The mink is a North American animal whose fur is unrivalled for its beauty and durability. It is of a chocolate brown color, very fine, short, and dense, with strong, stiff overhairs. It is rapidly rising in estimation, and it is not so expensive as many skins are. A very fine specimen may often be bought for £1.

The sea-otter was formerly to be met with on the Pacific shores of North America in thousands, but the numbers have decreased considerably. The fur is jetty black and soft as velvet, the skin of the male being immeasurably superior to that of the female. A single skin has been known to fetch as much as £60, £80, and even £100, but the value has declined of late years. Still the animal is scarce, and consequently the fur is only within reach of the wealthiest.

The seal is undoubtedly, from a commercial point of view, the most important among the Carnivora. There are several varieties of the animal to be met with in almost every part of the world. The flesh of one kind is used as food, another yields seal-oil from its blubber, and another is the fur-seal. We have to concern ourselves now only with the last-named variety.

They live in millions on the rocky islands of the seas which they frequent. A seal breeding-ground, or rookery, as it is called, is a sight worth seeing. About June the bull seals begin to arrive thousands strong, and shortly after they are followed by the females. In many places, owing to the indiscriminate slaughter that was allowed to go on, the animals have entirely disappeared, and now the annual take is strictly limited by international law.

All the skins we have mentioned, and many other varieties, are known as fancy furs, or dressed furs. The skins or pelts are dressed and prepared by a sort of tawing process with the fur on them. The alum and salt used in the tawing convert the skin itself into a kind of kid leather, thereby arresting all tendency to putrefaction, and at the same time fixing the hairs.

Some of the commoner kinds of furs, such as those of the rabbit, hare, coypus, cat, and musk-rat, are used for felting. For this purpose the fur is removed from the skin, and beaten and pressed till it becomes matted or felted together. This is the material of which felt hats are made. As a branch of the fur trade it forms a thriving industry, not only in England, but also in France, Belgium, and Germany.