{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.).''j ■•^ ^ 



The Scottish Naturalist 



Nos. 125 AND 126.] 1922 [May-June 



SCOTLAND AND THE FUR SUPPLY. 



Once on a day Scotland played no inconsiderable part in 

 supplying the continent of Europe with furs. But that was 

 long ago, when the Beaver sported in the River Ness, and 

 when Martens and other fur-bearers were common through- 

 out the land. Then, in the sixteenth century, " wes gret 

 repair " of merchants to Scotland from the continent " to 

 seik riche furrings " of Martens, Beavers, F.rmines, and 

 Foxes, " and skinnis of thaim were coft [bought] with gret 

 price." Even in the early half of the nineteenth century 

 as many as 600 skins of the Polecat have been offered for 

 sale at one time at the annual Fur Fair of Dumfries. 



But Scotland no longer furnishes the market with skins 

 of her native fur-bearers. Some have been extirpated from 

 the land, and most of the remainder have been so reduced 

 in numbers as to be toppling on the brink of extinction. 

 This process of extermination has not been confined to 

 Scotland. Other countries, where fur-bearing animals have 

 been slaughtered without let or hindrance, have seen their 

 native stocks depleted, and now some, having learned wisdom 

 before it is too late, are searching for means of preserving 

 the remnant of a commercially valuable fauna. Thus the 

 Department of Agriculture of the United States of America 

 declares in an official bulletin : " Unless the fur-bearinsr 



o 



125 AND I 26 I 



