More fur - February 19, 2012

Another missed post yesterday. We had a long day, while Anya played at doggie day care: lunch in Northfield, a baby shower, dinner with friends in Farmington, and (for us) a fair amount of driving. We all went to bed pretty early. And Anya had a fine time with her doggy buddies by all accounts.

That was yesterday. Today (which was up in the 40°Fs), I took her for a couple walks and a session at the dog park. It really is early spring. Trees are starting to pre-bud. Woodpeckers are starting to woodpeck. It's an odd year, but likely a presage of things to come...

I've begun reading Fur, Fortune and Empire, a history of the fur trade in North America. It's very well written, and makes a compelling case for the fur trade as a driving force (and sometimes the driving force) behind American political and economic life for the first couple hundred years of English, French and Dutch settlement.

What isn't covered is the use of furs in clothing, except in passing, when it is noted that prior to European exploitation of North American fur resources, furs (especially the warmest furs) were restricted to royalty... presumably this does not apply to those in the coldest reaches of Scandinavia and the Russian north, but it makes the point that fur was often as much for show as it was for practical warmth.

It appears that, for example, Norse Greenlanders did not apparently adopt the fur-based clothing of Inuit they came in contact with (Shackleton and other European arctic explorers made the sad mistake of not doing so, while Amundsen and others did to their profit).

Fur is wonderful stuff for staying warm in the arctic:

Whilst fur may lack waterproof properties, sea mammal gut and fish skin are extremely waterproof and were used to make coats, anoraks, parkas and boots. These can be combined with fur to keep the wearer warm and dry. Certain stitches also work well to keep garments waterproof - seams are made without piercing all layers of the material so that water cannot penetrate. Sinew is used for sewing and will swell when wet, closing any holes in the seams. - Scott Polar Research Institute

And it's really wonderful stuff for warmth where it is beastly cold. For all that PETA rails against fur as murder—and fur does mean the death of animals, whether you think of that as murder or not—nothing we've come up with in our human-made world of fibers can beat fur for warmth. And why should it? We've been making our own fibers for less than 100 years, and animals have been evolving fur for hundreds of millions of years. See (for example) one dogsledder's advice on dressing for -80°F.

And I have one piece of evidence: Ingrid's inside-out-sheepskin (shearling) coat. It is the warmest thing we own. And the mittens we had made when she cut down its length a few years ago were amazing too.

But... This assumes you want ONE warm item. Polar and high-altitude expeditions tend to dress in layer-upon-layer of less warm but cumulatively just-as-warm material: wool, fleece, waterproof, silk, etc. So in the 21st century, when you really are hiking across Baffin Island in January, it may be that fur, even there, has a competitor.