274 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



prices that were certainly paid for specimen ermine- 

 skins in the days of the Georges in England and the 

 later Louis in France. How were those fabulously 

 costly skins prepared? Old trappers say no perfectly 

 downy pelt is ever taken from an ermine, that the 

 downy effect is produced by a trick of the trade 

 scraping the flesh side so deftly that all the coarse 

 hairs will fall out, leaving only the soft under-fur. 



