There  are  not  more  than  two  or  three  sea  otter  at  each  sale;
for  this  most  beautiful  of  the  world  furs  is  almost  extinct.  Lynx
and  badger  soft  as  swan's  down  are  here  from  Canada  and  the  North-
western States.  Rabbits  are  here  in  millions,  chiefly  from  Aus-
tralia and  Belgium.  Fisher  and  otter  —  the  aristocrats  of  the  con-
noisseur's favorite  fur  —  are  present  in  a  few  thousand  each,  with
only  a  few  chinchilla,  squirrel  in  almost  a  million,  and  mole  in  mil-
lions.    Call  them  the  velvet  or  pansy  furs.
For  three  months  the  sorters  have  been  at  work  on  these  furs  —
as  told  elsewhere,  paid  $6000  and  $7000  and  ^10,000  for  three
months'  work  —  putting  them  into  as  carefully  graded  bundles  as
wheat  buyers  grade  wheat,  or  apple  buyers  grade  fruit.  Certain
floors  of  the  warehouses  are  given  over  entirely  to  certain  furs.
Of  the  grading  and  sorting,  a  layman  may  not  speak.  It  is  more
ticklish  work  than  awarding  a  prize  in  the  Royal  Academy.  Some
of  the  furs  are  graded  as  to  size.  Some  are  graded  as  to  age  and
called  kits.  Then  these  goods  are  subdivided  into  firsts,  middlings
and  thirds.     Furs  not  prime  —  taken  out  of  season,  or  spoiled  in


FUR  MARKETS  OF  WORLD  19

the  skinning,  or  dulled  in  the  curing  —  are  placed  at  the  very  bot-
tom of  grades  and  usually  sold  only  for  hatting  and  felting  or  fill-
ings, which  explains  to  the  outsider  why  at  the  same  sale  silver
fox  sold  at  $1200  and  also  sold  at  ^1.50,  why  a  small  mink  skin  sold
at  $60  and  another  larger  at  50^.
