In 1857 the total value of the furs was $182,491, and in 1858 $161,022, the decrease in 1858 being the result not of reduced quantity but of lower prices of furs. St. Paul is becoming a great depot and outlet for the fur trade. Prior to 1844 the entire fur product of the Red river valley, north and south of the British boundary, was collected by the agents of the Hudson's bay company, and sought the seaboard through Nelson's river and Hudson's bay. In 1844 an effort was made from St. Paul to get the furs of the Red river valley. The first year only $1,400 worth came that way; in 1856 the value amounted to $75,000. From Pembina, in 1857, there were received at St. Paul $120,000 worth of furs.

Animals.

The variety of furs in use and the importance of the trade are well exhibited in the following table of the importations and exportations of the English market in 1851, and of the importations in 1855-'6. The number of skins imported in 1851 was estimated at about 5,000,000. The omission of buffalo (bison) robes will not fail to be noticed. These, which constitute the largest item of the domestic trade in furs of the United States, being annually procured from the western territories to the amount of more than 100,000 skins, do not reach the English market, and are rarely exported to Europe. In the Crimean war they were sent there in some quantity to be used in the tents of the soldiers.

The skins of the raccoon (procyon lotor) are obtained from the American continent; they are finally sent to Germany and Russia, where, on account of their durability and cheapness, they are in demand for linings for coats, &c. The fur of the beaver (castor Americanus) was formerly highly prized in the manufacture of hats, and it made a considerable portion of the profits of the fur companies. It constituted the largest item in value among furs. In 1839 a single skin was worth in London 278. 6d.; in 1846, 38. 5d. In the former year 55,486 skins sold for £76,312; in the latter year 45,389 skins sold for £7,856. Cheaper materials had been substituted in making hats, and the demand had nearly ceased. By a new process the skin is now prepared to make a handsome fur for collars and gauntlets, and its fine silky wool has also been successfully woven. The white wool from the belly of the animal is still largely used in France for bonnets. The chinchilla (chinchilla lanigera) is an animal intermediate between the squirrel and the rabbit. It inhabits South American countries;

those producing the darkest and best colored skins (which are a silvery gray) are found among the Chilian Andes and in Arica. The fur is soft and delicate, and is principally consumed in France, Germany, and Russia. Bear skins, included in peltry, are of various sorts. The skins of the black bear (ursus Americanus) and grisly bear (U. horribilis) are used for military caps, housings, holsters, sleigh robes, &c. ; the fur of the brown bear (U. Isabellinus) for articles of ladies' dress. The fisher is a North American animal of larger size than the sable, with longer and fuller fur. The most valuable of the fox skins are those of the black or silver fox. The latter are occasionally obtained in the country bordering Lake Superior, and are there valued at more than $50 apiece. When highly dressed they are worth in the European markets from 10 to 40 guineas each. They are bought principally for the Russian and Chinese markets. The white fox (vulpes lagopus) is very abundant in the arctic regions. The skins of the red fox are purchased by the Chinese, Persians, Greeks, &c., and made into linings for robes, &c. They are

fur changing from a dingy brown to a pure white in the winter season in the cold regions of Russia, Sweden, and Norway, where alone it is found. The lower part of the tail is shining jet black, and this is commonly introduced as an ornament to the white fur, being inserted at intervals. The paws of the black Astrakhan lamb are often substituted for the tail of the ermine. This fur, called minever in heraldry, has been the royal fur of several European nations. Its use was restricted to the royal family of England by Edward III. At present it may be worn by any one; the modes of ornamenting it, however, as it is worn on state occasions, serve still to distinguish the sovereign and the rank of the peers, peeresses, judges, &c. Only the robes of the royal family can be trimmed with ermine thickly spotted with the black paws of the Astrakhan lamb. The use of the ermine fur is restricted in Austria to the imperial family; and it also distinguishes the sovereigns of Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Russia. The muskrat or musquash (fiber zibethicus) is a common inhabitant of the banks of our streams, in the most remote districts of the mountains, as well as in the cultivated meadows around our villages. The fur is principally used by the hatters, who pay a small price for the skins. It is also dressed and used for the other uses of fur. The skins of the otter (lutra vulgaris, L. Canadensis) make a beautiful and warm fur, which is much valued, especially by the Russians, Greeks, and Chinese. It is for the most part an American product; but it is also procured to some extent in the British isles from a smaller variety of the species. Another stnall variety with short fur is also found in the East Indies. The sea otter (enhydra marina) is found in the north Pacific ocean, on the Asiatic and American coasts. Its habits resemble those of the seal. The Russians and Chinese highly esteem its fur, and it is said that its use in China is restricted to the emperor, mandarins, and officers of state. It was first introduced into commerce in 1725, and in 1780 it was in great demand in China, and commanded such prices, from $30 to $100 a skin, that several American and British expeditions were set on foot to obtain the furs on the northern islands of the Pacific, about Nootka sound, &c. Many varieties of the seal (phoca) furnish useful furs. The large supplies are from the coasts of cold countries. The fine silky and curly yellow down of this animal is disfigured in the natural state by long coarse hairs which grow through it, and are rooted deep in the pelt. These are removed by splitting the skins with a sharp blade between the roots of the two kinds of hair; the same effect occurs by a process of fermentation. The fur is usually dyed a deep brown color, and then resembles in its softness the richest velvet. Wolf skins are of little value for fur; they serve for sleigh robes and such purposes. The squirrel (sciurus vulgaris), though diminutive in size, furnishes a vast amount of fur. The animal is found of many varieties in cold countries, and

ornamented with the black fur of the paws, which is set on in spots or waves. The fiery fox is an Asiatic species of a brilliant red color and very fine fur. It is the standard of value on the N. E. coast of Asia. At the Leipsic fair it is known as the Podolian fox. The lynx includes the Canada lynx and the lynx cat (felis Canadensis and F. rufa). The fur is soft, warm, and light, naturally of a grayish color, with dark spots, but commonly dyed a beautiful shining black. Itis used for facings and linings of cloaks, for the most part in America, brought back from England. Several species, or at least varieties, of marten or sable produce the fur which is commonly known by the latter name. The most valuable is the crown or Russian, the skin of the mustela zibellina, the use of which in Russia is monopolized by the imperial family and nobility. The darker varieties have sold for £9 each, but their average value does not exceed £2 or £3. The use of this fur in the time of Henry VIII. was restricted to those above the rank of viscount. The lining of a robe of state, if made of the finest sables, is stated to cost sometimes 1,000 guineas. The best skins are obtained in Yakootsk, Kamtchatka, and Russian Lapland. Only about 25,000 are annually procured, and but few of them reach the English market. Some are brought every year by Jewish traders to the fair at Leipsic, obtained privately from Siberia. In 1855 many choice furs were received in New York from the Russian American company at Sitka, it being thought more prudent to send them there than to risk their reaching St. Petersburg. Among the packages was a camphor wood box of about 3 feet in length, bearing the stamp of the Russian government, and containing 400 small skins, which were valued at $14,000. The highest prized were those almost black, which were rated at $51 or $52 each. A cape of full size would require from 16 to 18 of these skins. The Hudson's bay sable were rated in 1856 at about $25 per skin. The fur of the tails is an excellent material for the fine pencils or brushes used by artists. The Hudson's bay sable is generally considered another species, and is named M. Canadensis. The fur is commonly dyed a darker color than that natural to the animal. The chief demand for this fur is in England, France, and Germany. The baum or pine marten (M. abietum and the stone marten (M. saxorum) are European sables, the former living in wild districts, the latter often near the habitations of man. The fur of the latter is much used by the French, who excel in dyeing it, and it is hence often known as French sable. The minx or mink (M. vison) is of the same genus with the other sables; the fur is largely obtained in North America, and is sometimes passed off as real Russian sable. The Kolinkski is an inferior Russian or Tartar sable; the tail affords the best hairs for artists' pencils. The choicest fur of the sables is that of the ermine (M. erminea). This is a small animal only 10 or 12 inches in length, much resembling the common weasel, but differing from it in its

the number of them destroyed is almost incredible. In Russia alone it is estimated that about 23,000,000 skins are annually obtained. The most valuable portion is the back of the gray squirrel; the white portion covering the belly is also highly prized, especially for cloak linings. The Weisenfels lining, weighing only 25 ounces, will cover a full-sized cloak. The tails are made into boas, and the hairs into artists' brushes. The fitch is the European polecat (mustela putorius). Its fur is perhaps more used in this country than in those to which it is indigenous. The various species of the rabbit and the hare furnish much fur that is used in making felt; and the skins of some of them are sufficiently strong to be dressed for linings, those of the Polish rabbit being now no mean substitute for ermine. The silver gray rabbit was formerly known only in Lincolnshire, England, but the breed is now raised in warrens in various parts of England, and the fur is exported to China and Russia, where it is much valued, though thought little of in its own country. The business of breeding rabbits for their fur has been introduced into the United States, and large numbers of them were raised not long since in warrens near Danbury, Conn. The nutria or coypou (myopotamus coypus), not included in the above table, formerly supplied large quantities of fur for hats, as many as 600,000 skins being exported to Great Britain annually from Buenos Ayres and Chili. The supply has now fallen off, and the few skins obtained are dressed as a substitute for the more costly fur seal. The fur of the North American wolverine or glutton (gulo luscus) finds a market for the most part in Germany, where it is used for cloak linings, &c. The skins of the skunk (mephitis Americana) are annually exported from New York to the amount of many thousands, and from England they are reshipped to the continent. They are worth from 50 to 67 cts. apiece, the black ones being most esteemed. Valuable furs are supplied from many other animals beside those enumerated, as the badger, whose long wiry hairs are also used for shaving brushes. The domestic cat is bred in Holland for its fur, and the skins are merchantable in the United States, being worth from 10 to 50 cts. each; kittens 6 to 8 cts. Mention has been made of the paws of the black Astrakhan lamb. This animal is covered with the most rich and glossy silk-like fur, all the more delicate, it is said, when obtained, as is not unusual, by slaughtering the mother before the birth of the lamb. The fur of the Persian gray and black lambs is made the better to retain its curliness by the practice of sewing the animal tightly in leather immediately after its birth. The furs of the leopard, tiger, lion, &c., find uses as sleigh robes, mats, &c.-Notwithstanding the increasing scarcity of furs, what is called the fancy fur trade, being that in furs used principally for the dresses of ladies, and exclusive of hatters' furs and buffalo robes, is of growing importance in the United States. The wholesale and retail trade of the city of New York for the year 1856 was estimated at about

$1,375,000. The increased demand was mostly for the skins of the mink and opossum, the effect of which has been to raise the price of the former from its old rate of from 30 to 50 cents each to from $3 50 to $4. Among the publications relating to furs and the fur trade may be mentioned a paper of Mr. Aiken, published in the "Transactions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce" (London, 1830); Irving's "Astoria ;" an article in the "American Journal of Science" (vol. xxv., 1834); and a "Report of the Celebration of the Anniversary of the Founding of St. Louis on the 15th day of February, A. D. 1847."-FUR-DRESSING. As skins are sent to market they have been commonly merely dried in the sun or by a fire; or possibly the small skins may have been first steeped in a solution of alum. The object is to render the pelt perfectly dry, so that when packed it shall not be liable to putrefy. When stored in large quantities the skins are carefully protected from dampness, and to secure them from injury by moths, they are strewed with camphor, and every few weeks are overhauled, and each skin beaten with a stick. This causes the worms of the moth to fall upon the floor, where they are immediately crushed. As the fur-dresser receives the skins he causes them to be subjected to different processes according to the kind of fur and the object for which it is intended. The fine qualities for ornamental dresses are usually placed in tubs together with a quantity of rancid butter, and are then trampled upon by the feet of men. The pelt thus becomes softened, as if partially tanned. They are next cleaned of the loose bits of integument by rubbing them with a strip of iron. The grease is then removed by trampling them again with a mixture of sawdust-that of mahogany is preferred-and occasionally beating them, and combing the fur. This is all that is necessary to prepare them for the cutter, whose office it is to cut out the variously shaped pieces, and sew them together to make the different articles. The cutting requires much skill to avoid waste. From a great number of similar skins parts of the same shades of color are selected, and thus each muff, mantle, or other article is made to present a uniform color. The seams are concealed by the lining with which the furs are finished.-Furs intended for felting, as the sorts used in hat making, are differently prepared. Hare skins are split open, then rubbed with a jagged knife blade called a rake to remove bits of fleshy matter adhering to the pelt. They are then damped on the pelt side with water, and being placed together in pairs, pelt to pelt, are pressed. They are thus made smooth and ready for shearing, an operation by which the long coarse hairs are clipped close down to the fur. The angular projections and edges of the pelt are then trimmed off, a process called rounding. The next operation is cutting off the fur. This is performed with broad knives, made it may be of sheet iron or of steel, frequently sharpened to a rough edge by rubbing them

upon a coarse whetstone. The skins are held upon a cutting board made of willow wood, and kept moistened with water, and the knife, applied first at the cheeks of the skin, is run rapidly forward and backward, steadily removing the fur as it progresses toward the tail. An instrument of tin is held in the left hand against the knife, and by means of this the fur is gathered up and kept in one fleece. By the old method the skins were split down the back, dividing them into halves, and in cutting one of these the left hand served without any instrument to press the knife forward and gather the fur in, being lifted for the purpose with every 2 or 3 strokes. Rabbit skins are treated in a similar way, except that the long hairs, instead of being clipped, are pulled by catching each one between a knife blade and the thumb, this being protected by a leather covering. Beaver and nutria skins require more care to remove the fatty and fleshy matters, and to cleanse them from grease, all which must be done before the long hairs are pulled. Nutria skins especially are loaded with fat upon the pelt, and the fur is filled with grease. Scrubbing with a brush and free use of soap and boiling water are necessary to remove the latter. The fur of beaver skins is cut by machines, which have been successfully applied to this thick kind of pelt; but the unevenness of other sorts prevents their application to these. Attempts have been made to remove the fur by chemical ingredients, but the effect of these has usually been to impair the felting property. But the application of dilute sulphuric acid to the fur before it is removed from the pelt is found to improve this property, probably by its destroying the last traces of the grease. Skins that have been wetted with it are said to be carroted, from the color it imparts; they should be immediately dried by exposure to the heat of a fire, or by smoothing with a hot iron and drying in the sun. Rabbit and hare skins by long keeping are very liable to suffer injury from moths and other insects, and the former, especially if kept in large heaps, from the running of the greasy matter among them, and becoming rancid, corroding the pelt itself. In England it is found that the strongest rabbit fur for felting is obtain ed from animals bred near the sea, particularly along the coast of Lincolnshire and Berwick and the intermediate coast. The skins taken in the winter are far superior in quality to those obtained at other times, and are distinguished in the trade as seasoned, all others being called unseasoned. For further information in this department of the fur manufacture see FELT, and HAT.

FUREEDPOOR, or DACCA JELALPOOR, a district of British India, presidency of Bengal, bounded N. by Mynumsing, E. by Dacca, S. by Backergunge, and W. by Jessore and Pubna; area, 2,052 sq. m.; pop. 855,000. It is wholly alluvial, and in the S. and N. E. parts, where the land is low and marshy, is subject to frequent inundations, but the N. and N. W. are more elevated, and have a rich, deep soil. The Ganges

touches the W. frontier at Juffergunge, and receives an offset of the Konaie, by which its volume is more than doubled; 15 m. below it enters the district, which it waters for 60 m. of its course, sending off near the E. frontier a branch called the Kirtynassa, which connects it with the Brahmapootra. The principal productions of the district are the sugar cane, cotton, indigo, oil seeds, and rice. Among the manufactures are indigo, sugar, rum, and coarse cotton cloths for domestic use. Fureedpoor, Hobigunge, and Juffergunge are the chief towns. The district was acquired by a grant from the emperor Shah Alum in 1765.—FUREEDPOOR, the capital of the above district, is a straggling town on the right bank of the Ganges, here called the Podda, 115 m. N. E. from Calcutta. It was formerly notorious as a resort of river pirates, but since the establishment of the government officers at this place the evil has been abated.

FURETIÈRE, ANTOINE, a French author chiefly known for his controversy with the academy, born in Paris in 1620, died May 14, 1688. He was successively an advocate, a fiscal agent, an abbé, and a prior, and was admitted into the French academy in 1662. While the academy was preparing its dictionary, Furetière, regarding the work as defective, determined to edit and publish a lexicon on his own account. Hence the academy excluded him, and a war of epigrams, satires, and libels, unsurpassed for violence, began between him and the leading academicians. Furetière was protected by the most important personages, by Racine, Boileau, Molière, Bossuet, and even Louis XIV., and his wit and vivacity distinguished him in society; but his death occurred before the suit which he prosecuted against the academy was decided. His dictionary, enlarged by Basnage, passed through several editions. He wrote also a few fables and poems.

FURIES. See EUMENIDES.

FURLONG (Sax. far or fur and long), an old English measure of 40 poles, equivalent to of a mile. In Ireland it is 0.15 of a mile, and in Scotland 0.1409. In the United States the measure is not in use. As a superficial measure, a furlong in Great Britain is generally 10 acres, according to the acre of different counties; but it was formerly used for a piece of land of no particular dimensions.

FURNACE (Lat. fornax), a structure containing a fireplace, intended for maintaining intense heat. It differs from a kiln, which is used for purposes requiring lower degrees of heat, the one being contrived to effect rapid combustion, and the other to sustain a slowly consuming fire. In many of the useful arts the first requisite is the means of obtaining a very high temperature. In all metallurgic operations, the object of which is the reduction of the ores and treatment of the metals, and in almost every art involving the use of fire, a furnace of some kind for producing this heat is in demand. The ancient Greeks employed furnaces for casting statues of bronze; Homer makes mention of a

blast furnace with 20 crucibles (Il. xviii. 470). The Egyptians are known to have made use of melting pots, but we have no knowledge of their furnaces. An ancient smelting furnace was discovered near Arles, in southern France, which was shaped like an inverted bell, having under the surface of the ground a channel for the discharge of the melted metal. Strabo speaks of furnaces built in Spain, which were raised to a great height for conveying off the noxious fumes. They were also funished with long flues and chambers made for collecting the oxides and other sublimed matters. The forms and dimensions of modern furnaces vary greatly according to the different purposes they are designed to serve. The iron manufacturer, smelting the ores upon the vast scale upon which his business is conducted, builds an immense structure with a capacity of hundreds of tons, and furnishes it with heavy machinery for supplying the great volume of air blown in almost without ceasing, as the operation is continued during a single "blast" of two years or more. But the furnace which first tries his ores and determines their properties, in order to guide the workings of the great establishment, may be but a small vessel of refractory material, heated in the laboratory by a gas flame, made more intense by its mixture with a current of atmospheric air. (See BLOWPIPE.) In the article COPPER SMELTING, reference has been made to the peculiar furnaces employed in this operation; and those made use of in the treatment of iron ores will be described in the article upon that metal. Other furnaces also will be found noticed in the accounts of the arts to which they belong, and those for warming buildings in the article on WARMING AND VENTILATION.-All furnaces employed in melting refractory materials-those for assaying, as well as those operating upon a large scale-require a free supply of air, proportional in quantity to the amount of fuel they consume. The generation of heat depends upon the rapid chemical combination of carbon with oxygen, and a sufficient supply of the latter element is as essential as is that of the former. Every pound of good bituminous coal, according to Dr. Thomson, requires 150 cubic feet of air, or, allowing more for waste, there should be supplied at least 200 cubic feet. So immense is the quantity of this invisible element consumed and wasted in the large furnaces for smelting iron ores, that its weight even is greater than that of all the other materials, ores, coal, and flux, introduced; and the power required to force this volume of air through the dense column of heated matters far exceeds that expended in charging the furnace with its solid contents, even adding to this the power involved in the removal of the products of the operation. To provide for this large supply is then a matter of the first consequence to furnaces; and according to the mode in which this is effected they are separated into two classes. The kind called air or wind or reverberatory furnaces receive their supply by means of the

current produced by a tall chimney, the heated column rushing upward through the flue, as a Montgolfier balloon rises when the air within it is rarefied and rendered specifically lighter by heat. (See CHIMNEY.) To fill the space in the lower part of the flue, air presses in from without through every aperture; and none being allowed except those leading through the receptacle for the fuel, the supply of air is thus secured, heat is generated for the purposes required, and a portion is expended in furnishing the mechanical power involved in the movement of the current of air. Our fireplaces, stoves, and grates are examples of air furnaces; and by means of the blower, which causes the air admitted into the chimney to pass first through the fire, the flue is prevented from becoming chilled by the entrance of cold air, the column ascends more rapidly, an increased supply of air is furnished to every portion of the body of fuel, and the chemical process goes on with augmented intensity and generation of heat. The other classes of furnaces are supplied with air through bellows or other blowing apparatus. (See BLOWING MACHINES.) They are called for this reason blast furnaces, and are used when the resistance opposed to the passage of the current of air by the density of the contents of the furnace is so great, that sufficient quantity cannot penetrate to keep up thorough combustion throughout the mass; or when the operations do not admit of the large openings beneath the fire, which the free admission of such bodies of air would require; or again, when the nature of the operation demands an intensity of heat concentrated in one spot. The blast in this case acts like the jet of the blowpipe, and its effect is in many cases greatly increased by its being conveyed through iron pipes which are highly heated by exposure in suitable ovens to the waste heat of the smoke and gases which escape from the chimney. It thus returns to the interior of the furnace, in the form of highly heated air, a portion of the caloric that would otherwise be lost. Furnaces of both classes are often used in the chemical laboratory. The one commonly employed for general purposes is a wind furnace, built of fire brick, and strongly secured with iron rods and straps. It has a flat top, with two or more openings, and on these are placed pans of cast iron, one exposing a surface of 2 to 3 feet square running over the flue. This contains the sand in which vessels are placed for exposure to moderate heat. The other is a deeper pan or rather pot, also partially filled with sand, in which retorts and other vessels may be subjected to more intense heat. The furnace has under the flue that leads into the chimney an oven for drying. With a good draught this furnace produces sufficient heat for many crucible operations. These are, however, better conducted in smaller furnaces, either wind or blast, constructed specially for this use. Dr. Faraday contrived a very simple one of the latter class, which he used in the laboratory of the royal institution. He employed two blue