The Scottish Naturalist. 
99 
annually held about the third week in February. From 1848, 
the trade almost entirely left the streets, and became centred in 
the stores of several large rag merchants and general dealers, and 
thereafter instead of all the trading in peltry being done during 
the Fair week, furs were bought and sold the whole winter 
through. 
Many curious items of information about the skin trade, and 
the animals which supplied the staple, are contained in the 
old reports, and some of these will be mentioned in the notes 
that follow the tables. The most prominent features of the 
annual fairs have been arranged in a tabulated form : as in that 
way, information may be presented in a clearer and more 
accessible form. The remarks in these tables marked with 
inverted commas are the same words used in the old reports from 
whence I have already stated all the materials of the present 
sketch have been derived. 
The Furriers Dozen, — The furriers' " dozen " 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 consisted of twenty or thirty, or more of inferior 
skins. The skins were classified into " whole," " racks," and 
''light." The "whole" were good perfect skins, ''racks "were 
those which had been torn, or were otherwise imperfect ; and 
" light " were half skins or portions of skins. 
Localities supplying the Skins. — An extract from one of the 
market reports {^Courier, 1829) will fully explain whence the 
furs were derived : ~" In addition to skins received by packmen 
in exchange for goods in all the parishes of Dumfries-shire, and 
the Shire and Stewartry of Galloway, supplies were forwarded 
from various counties — Ayr, Lanark, Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, 
Cumberland, and even Northumberland." 
Where they were sent to. — At the annual fairs furriers were in 
attendance for the purpose of purchasing supplies from Aberdeen, 
Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Greenock, Berwick, Penrith, New- 
castle-on-Tyne, Preston, Sheffield, Sunderland, Lancaster, Man- 
chester and London. The greater portion of the furs bought were 
sent south. 
What they were used for. — There is not much information to 
be gathered on this point. The great bulk of the hare and rabbit 
