1 62 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



wilds, it was hunted first for its skin, and later on account 

 of its love of poultry and game. This, and especially its 

 fondness for Rabbits, has led to its undoing. 



In the old days its skin was an export of some value, the 

 export duty of 4^. on each timmer 1 of Ferret skins imposed 

 in the reign of David II (1324-1371) being raised, in 1424, 

 to "8^. to be paid on each ten fulmart's skins, called fethokis, 

 exported." In the country's fur markets, too, it held an 

 important place, and the influence upon its welfare of man's 

 interference can be clearly traced in the dwindling numbers 

 of skins offered for sale, as well as in the rising prices paid 

 for skins by traders at local fairs. At the annual Dumfries 

 Fur Fair, the contemporary records of which, from 1816 till 

 1874 when the Fair ceased, were collected by Mr R. Service, 

 there were exposed for sale in 1829 400 Foumarts' skins, in 

 1831 600 and in the following year, they were, as the con- 

 temporary account puts it "a drug on the market." Yet in 

 1856 the numbers had fallen to 240, in 1860 to 168, in 1866 

 to 12 and from 1869 till the Fair ceased there were "no 

 foumart skins on offer." 



The diagram (Fig. 40, p. 165) shows graphically the effect 

 of constant slaughter on the numbers of Foumarts collected 

 throughout the Lowlands of Scotland, and, equally instructive, 

 the gradually increasing price which the skins commanded, 

 for although the trend of fashion and demand may account 

 for minor fluctuations, there can be little doubt that in the 

 main the rising value is to be associated with the growing 

 scarcity of the animal. The price is reckoned upon "the 

 furrier's dozen" which consisted of 



twelve very best full-sized skins, or a greater number of small-sized or 

 secondary quality, or torn skins, so that a "dozen" sometimes really con- 

 sisted of twenty or thirty or more of inferior skins. 



The fixing of prices according to the "furrier's dozen," has 

 the advantage, from our point of view, of practically eliminat- 

 ing price fluctuations due to the quality of the skins. The 

 general rising tendency of the values, as plotted in the graph, 

 is apparent; before 1850 twice only did the price reach 2os. 

 and sometimes it fell to 1 2*. a dozen, after 1 850 it fell beneath 

 the 2os. standard only twice, and in one year ranged from 

 425-. to 45.?. The steady and gradual rise is still more marked 

 1 See footnote p. 159. 



