THE RUSSIAN FUR TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2289, 12 March 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RUSSIAN FUR TRADE.

'Di'i'.iN'C winter the peasants of the northern provinces of Russia live transformed into hunters, and supply the two capitals with enormous quantities of feathered and fur Same, captured chiefly by means of nets and snares. Simultaneously with this supply of food St. Petersburg and Moscow receive the furs of Siberia, furnished mainly by the squirrel. The Zyrians, a wild people dwelling along the' banks of the Petchora, are peculiarly expert in capturing these little animals. In certain _ years they appear in such vast quantities that the village roofs throughout Viatica are seen to swarm with them, and even in ordinary years the single district of Slobodsk sends to market 300,000 skins. At the first appearance of snow the Zyrian hunters repair to the deepest recesses of the Petchora forests. They are grouped in companies and epuipped in a strange costume handed down from generations and well adapted to the chase. They build huts at a suitable spot, in which they live, but hardly breathe, so closely are they packed, and the whole forms a sort of camp. The koulaks, or village speculators, buy at very low prices the produce of the hunt, and convey it to the fair of Irbit, which opens on the Ist of February, and whither the great fur merchants of the empire send their agents. The squirrel skins are sold there for 15 copecks each, and from three to six millions of them change, hands at every fair, The zibeline fur is sold in groups of 40 skins. In 1885 there were exhibited for sale at libit 150 groups at the rate of 200 roubles a group. The quantity of other furs was still more considerable—2oo,ooo fox, a like number of hare, and 1,500 bear skins, &c. The cost of transport from lrbit to St Petersburg is high, and varies l from four to 12 roubles the pood. The purchases at the fair for the capital amount to 500,000 roubles every winter. All these furs are deposited in a rough state at the Gostinnoi-Dvor; they are there cut, cleansed, and divided into five categories, each according to quality. A multitude of women are employed in sewing the small pieces together. For a pelisse of zibeliue from 40 to 80 of the little animals are generally required, but a pelisse composed only of the paws takes 400 pieces to make it. | The price of a garment of this precious fur varies between 300 and 7,000 roubles—i.e., between £30 and £700. Large quantities of fur pass through St. Petersburg on their way to foreign marts especially to the fair of Leipsic.