ICO 
TJie Scottish IW'ituraUst. 
fur was used up in the manufacture of the tall head gear, once so 
indispensable a portion of the daily garb of former generations. 
Foumart skins were mostly manufactured into ladies' boas, and 
old wardrobes yet contain specimens of such. There is one of 
these old boas of foumart fur in the possession of a member of my 
family, and this article has been in existence for over two score 
years at anyrate, and probably a good deal more. With regard to 
otters there is a very interesting passage in the Courier for Feb- 
ruary 2ist, 1829 : — "About fifty otter skins were exhibited in alb 
which sold from Ss. to los. each. Most of these were from Galloway, 
and the time has been when a Dumfries dealer bought sixty otter 
skins from one individual, and then — that is thirty years ago — 
(say 1 80c) the price, in place of los. w^as very nearly three times 
that sum. At the period to which we allude, nearly the w^hole 
otter skins, exported to London, were made into purses, highly 
ornamented with gold and silver lace, and sent out to Africa as 
presents to an endless number of barbarian princes and others, 
with whom it was our interest to court an alliance. But after the 
decay of the African trade we discontinued exporting purses to 
those who no longer assisted in fillmg our own, and hence the 
lessened value of the article in question. Otter skins are now 
mixed with those of beavers — just as the fur of an Ayrshire rabbit 
serves as a substratum for the finer material yielded by a crack 
Galloway har-e." 
Causes of the Decline of the Fur Market. — This w^is partly caused 
by the large increase in the importation of foreign furs^ when the 
import duties were discontinued, but mainly through the opening 
of steam communication with the South. As soon as steamers 
began to ply regularly between the Galloway and Dumfriesshire 
ports, and Liverpool, great quantities of hares, rabbits, and other 
game were forwarded to the latter port, and of course their skins 
went with them. It is recorded that early in the winter of 1843, 
the s.s. Nithsdale took at one trip from Dumfries to Liverpool 
lour tons of hares and rabbits. Twelve tons of game left Kirk- 
cudbright in one day ; and to the value of ;£4oo weekly from 
Kirkcudbright and Wigton " (note by Sir W. Jardine in Jesse's 
Edition of " W bite's Selborne/' 1851^ p. 398). Afterwards railway 
communication was completed and swept away the remains of the 
fur market. Minor causes of its decay were found in the lact 
that about the year 181 5, travellers directly representing the great 
