THE SABLE. (Mustela, or Martes Zibellina.)
This animal is a native of Siberia, Kamtschatka, and Asiatic Russia, and it frequents the banks of rivers, and the thickest parts of the woods. It lives in holes under the ground, and especially under the roots of trees; but sometimes makes its nest, like the squirrel, in the hollows of trees. The skin of the Sable is more valuable than that of any other animal of equal size. One of these skins, not more than four inches broad, has sometimes been valued at as high a rate as fifteen pounds; but the general price is from one to ten pounds, according to the quality. The Sable’s fur is different from all others, its peculiarity being, that the hair turns with equal ease either way; on which account fur dealers sometimes blow the fur of any article they may be selling, to show that it is really Sable. The tails are sold by the hundred, at from four to eight pounds.
The American Sable (M. leucopus) is considered to be a distinct species.