a dark fur-bearing animal of the weasel family. It is about eighteen inches in length, with a fine bushy tail two-thirds as long. It is related closely to the American marten, and, like it, has fur of three lengths. It is one of the most important fur-bearing animals of Russia and Siberia. Large numbers are trapped in the winter season, the pelts are taken off whole, turned inside out, stretched on a frame and dried, then sold to local buyers and sent to the Leipsic fur market. The fur is considered more valuable than that of the marten or American sable. The fur has the peculiar quality of smoothing in any direction. Fine dark pelts are worth from $10 to $150 in Leipsic or London. It is the most expensive of all fur. The nobility of Russia regard the fur of the sable as more desirable than that of the seal. The sable overcoat of the czar is valued at $22,000. The darker the fur, the more valuable it is considered. The corporation robes of the London aldermen are lined with sable. The color of the fur of the sable being generally dark, the word has been used to mean black, as in such expressions as, "Night, sable goddess," "Sable trappings of woe," "Sable hue," etc. See MARTEN; FUR.