Siberian fur trade to overhunting. Instead of one sable pelt, the following was accepted as its equivalent: one fox, glutton (relative of the marten), or otter pelt; two blue-fox pelts; sixteen polar-fox pelts; or one hundred squirrel pelts. The Russian government decided the amount of other pelts that were equivalent to the sable pelt. Within forty years, almost all Siberian natives were forced into paying fur tribute to the Russians. Russian traders, hunters, and explorers reached the Pacific coastline by 1650 and were collecting fur tribute from most natives along the coast. Beyond the yasuk, the Russians had two principal ways of obtaining
California Fur Rush California Fur Rush Before the 1849 California Gold Rush, American, English and Russian fur hunters were drawn to Spanish (and then Mexican) California in a California Fur Rush, to exploit its enormous fur resources. Before 1825, these Europeans were drawn to the northern and central California coast to harvest prodigious quantities of southern sea otter ("Enhydra lutris nereis") and fur seals ("Callorhinus ursinus"), and then to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta to harvest beaver ("Castor canadensis"), river otter ("Lontra canadensis"), marten, fisher, mink, gray fox ("Urocyon cinereoargenteus"), weasel, and harbor seal. It was