228 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



the shark fishery. The fishermen seldom tan the skins, 

 but remove them from the sharks, carefully salt them, 

 and then ship them to the tanneries. 



Shark leather finds use in the manufacture of 

 ladies' hand-bags, men's bill-folds, brief-cases, the 

 uppers of shoes, card-cases, and slippers. It adapts 

 itself readily to all sorts of grains and finishes and 

 for this reason is a popular leather for the manu- 

 facture of all sorts of novelties. 



Skate, devil-fish, saw-fish, and ray skins resemble 

 those obtained from the shark, and are prepared for 

 tanning and tanned by the same processes. They 

 possess a calcareous layer of shagreen, which is 

 removed by an acid treatment in the same way that 

 this layer is taken from shark's skin. These leathers 

 are used in much the same way as shark leather. 

 They are especially popular when made up into 

 novelties. 



A limited amount of cod, cusk, haddock, hake, and 

 pollack skins are tanned and the resultant leathers 

 made up into small novelties such as bill-folds and 

 card-cases. Since such leather is really so beautiful 

 and useful, it seems a shame that so little fish skin 

 is utilized. 



Hair-seal and walrus skins are not covered with 

 fur, and, since they resemble closely the skins of land 

 animals, they are tanned into excellent leather. A 

 century ago walruses were plentiful in Greenland, 

 Labrador, and other countries of the far north. But 

 they were so easily captured that relatively few of 

 them are left. Hair-seals were much smaller and were 

 not nearly so valuable, and accordingly they were 



