olar bear is sometimes found in the packs brought
to the traders by the most northern tribes of Indians, but is not
particularly valuable. The silver-tipped rabbit is peculiar to England,
and is sent thence to Russia and China.

Other furs are employed and valued according to the caprices of fashion,
as well in those countries where they are needed for defenses against
the severity of the seasons, as among the inhabitants of milder
climates, who, severely of Tartar or Sclavonian descent, are said to
inherit an attachment to furred clothing. Such are the inhabitants of
Poland, of Southern Russia, of China, of Persia, of Turkey, and all
the nations of Gothic origin in the middle and western parts of Europe.
Under the burning suns of Syria and Egypt, and the mild climes of
Bucharia and Independent Tartary, there is also a constant demand, and a
great consumption, where there exists no physical necessity. In our own
temperate latitudes, besides their use in the arts, they are in request
for ornament and warmth during the winter, and large quantities are
annually consumed for both purposes in the United States.

From the foregoing statements, it appears that the fur trade must
henceforward decline. The advanced state of geographical science shows
that no new countries remain to be explored. In North America the
animals are slowly decreasing, from the persevering efforts and
the indiscriminate slaughter practiced by the hunters, and by the
appropriation to the uses of man of those forests and rivers which have
afforded them food and protection. They recede with the aborigines,
before the tide of civilization; but a diminished supply will remain in
the mountains and uncultivated tracts of this and other countries, if
the avidity of the hunter can be restrained within proper limitations.

* An animal called the stoat, a kind of ermine, is said to
be found in North America, but very inferior to the European
and Asiatic.

* * The finest fur and the darkest color are most esteemed;
and whether the difference arises from the age of the
animal, or from some peculiarity of location, is not known.
They do not vary more from the common marten than the
Arabian horse from the shaggy Canadian.

Height of the Rocky Mountains.

VARIOUS estimates have been made of the height of the Rocky Mountains,
but it is doubtful whether any have, as yet, done justice to their
real altitude, which prom