As To An 'eager
Trade,' Or Excessive Hunting, Destroying Wild Animals, It Is
Impossible.
If the 'catch' is excessive this year, the supply will
exceed the demand, and prices will fall; the hunt will be less
eager next year, and the animals will increase.
In the March
sales in London this year, there were only 3,094 skunks, and the demand
was greater than the supply, so that the price was as high as 7s.
2d., which stimulated the United States collectors so much that
very likely C. M. Lampson & Co. will have about 100,000 in their
September sale, and prices will very likely fall to 1s., or
lower. The result will be, that the skunks will live in peace, and
increase and multiply for some years to come. The skunk is the most
'disagreeable' of animals to man; but it is not, therefore, destroyed.
I have a catalogue (Row, Row, Goad & Reece, brokers) of a fur sale (by
the candle) at the London Commercial Sale Room, Mincing Lane, on the
21st and 22nd March, 1821, which I compare below with catalogues of fur
sales in London on 27th and 28th January, and 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th,
9th, and 11th March, 1863. I include January, because musquash and
beaver are sold in that month. This statement does not embrace many
other, but lesser, sales, which take place about the same time. A
vast quantity goes direct from here to Germany, which, in past years,
went to London.
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