DESTRUCTION FOR SKINS AND OIL 



165 



years about 1863 and 1864, one keeper killed 30 on a single 

 estate (Littlewood) on Donside, and that 57 were killed in 

 five parishes on upper Deeside in ten years from 1 776, Aber- 

 deenshire has ceased to be tenanted since about 1870. 



The same tale has to be told of the southern border of 

 the Moray Firth. A Polecat appeared at Whitewreath, four 

 miles south of Elgin in 1898, but its fellows had been 

 exterminated before 1880. In all but the wilder parts of 

 Inverness it is extinct, though less than a hundred years ago 

 it was so common that in three years (1837-40) Glengarry 

 alone furnished 109 individuals. 



600 



500 



_cu 



Efl 



g 400 



$ 300 

 Hi 



I 20 



5 

 5 



100 



/ O^r "a drug in the market' 

 ; * >" below average'' 



/ V\ 



IX 



43/6 

 40/- 



30/- '* 



25/- I 



5: 

 20/- . 



151- 

 12/- 



1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860- 1865 1870 1875 



Fig. 40. THE DECLINE OF THE POLECAT; as shown by the dwindling 

 numbers of skins and rising prices at Dumfries Fur Fair. Numbers of skins are indicated 

 on the left, prices per furrier's dozen on the right. Broken line indicates skins on sale; 

 thin unbroken line, prices recorded; thick unbroken line, five-yearly averages of prices. 



The graph of skins is based on available numbers only, the remarks inserted are from 

 the Market Reports of the Fair. 



Even in Ross-shire it is now seldom seen, the example 

 last recorded having occurred at Leckmelm in 1902. In the 

 wilds of Sutherlandshire the Polecat has longer kept a foot- 

 ing: in 1912 one was seen at Lairg near Loch Shin, and 

 at Inchnadamph the years between 1880 and 1889 yielded 

 seven, and 1890 to 1899 eighteen individuals. It is hardly 

 necessary to add that the islands have been long deserted, 



though Monro wrote in 1549 "Oronsay quhair there is 



mayne laiche [low] land, full of hairs and foumarts." 



