Note 2 — Chapter XLV · THE LOWER AMUR.
Reading edition
On returning to Khabarofka I found one of my fellow-passengers had bought eight skins, for which he had paid 50s. each, and for one for his wife’s hat £4. I heard subsequently that the best sable-skins are from the neighbourhood of the Okhotsk sea, and are worth £4 each. My informant, an old sea captain, said that in 1857 he bought 2,000 in Kamchatka at 30s., and that they commanded in New York from £5 to £6 each. Among them were 22 skins for a lady’s set of trimmings, which, when made up, cost her £200. The skins of the younger sables, he said, were blacker than those of the older, which are apt to be more or less grey. The former sell better in Berlin, and the latter are highly esteemed in Paris.