His father was a shoemaker, his uncle a furrier, and he, being a younger son, was apprenticed to the latter's trade.
Like every other business, the fur trade runs in its regular grooves, and the average furrier will often pay an experienced professional five dollars for a skin for which he would not offer a dollar to an amateur.
The reason why furs are so warm is that their soft, furry under-hairs, or "pelt" as the furriers call it, entangle and hold an enormous amount of air.
You see this clearly enough in the fur that comes from your furriers after the treatment they subject it to with nitric acid and nitrate of mercury.
