Quick links

castor gras

[< F "greasy beaver"]

Fur Trade, Hist.

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

beaver pelts from a beaver coat (def. 1).

See: beaver coat(def. 1),castor sec,coat beaver,gras

Quotations

1696

[[translated from French] It is much to be feared that our company could not be successful in saving the best furs of Canada since certainly the greater part of the "castor gras" comes from the North. . . .]

1958

This made them dependent on castor gras, or in English, "coat beaver." These were skins which the Indians had worn for a season and which in the process had lost their guard hairs and had become so thoroughly greasy that they fully earned the title castor gras.

1964

Castor Gras was a beaver robe that had been worn to a sufficient degree of greasiness . . . to be acceptable to the peculiar demands of the hat trade.