Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/371

Rh shoulders and through the heart; long delicately turned head; a springy pelt and pink skin covered with a wealth of fine lustrous hair, particularly marked on limbs and under-body; and a large heavy 'brush. Says Dalton, the dean of breeders, "The black fox, silver fox and red fox are all the same species, differing only in colour. Litters have been found in the woods with some black pups among the reds, or silvers among the reds. The black fox is distinguished from others by the total absence of white or silver hairs, except on the tip of the tail. The hairs are three inches long. In the black fox each individual hair has a blue section one and a half inches long next to the body and the rest of the hair is black. In the silver fox, each individual hair is made up of the following—starting with the body—blue, for one and a half inches, black one-half inch, white one-half inch, black one-half inch.

"The firm of Lampsons, London, are the great fur-brokers of the world. It is upon their sales that the quotations of the world are based. They hold four auction sales every year in January, March, June and October, and these are conducted as follows—Eight days before the date of the sale the furs are arranged in lots, generally, as to silvers, one skin in each, seldom more than two. These lots are all numbered. The expert buyer