57 b' REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



the lower jaw, in the low ashes of a camp-fire, where the brains were 

 able t» become semi-baked during the first night, as these parts too 

 are utilized in the tanning process. 



"Next to shaving off" the hair, the hide is thrown over a small log he 

 had arranged against the tree in the morning, being held in place by 

 catching the skin of the head between the notch and the limb, the skin 

 of the hinder parts being always nearer the ground, and as the work 

 proceeds it is deftly shifted about by the tanner. 



" Now all the hair, except on the lower parts of the legs and the tail, 

 is rapidly scraped off with these bone scrapers, including the black epi- 

 dermis. Some tanners use a deer's rib, or that of the beef, and others 

 a dull hunting-knife, but the bones of the deer's fore-arm is the usual 

 instrument, and it is quite remarkable to observe how skilfully it is 

 managed, and how rarely a hole is cut in the skin. The shaving is car- 

 ried to the very edges of the hide all around, and even the backs of the 

 ears are carefully scraped, the entire operation lasting from two to four 

 hours, depending upou the size of the deer. 



" In appearance the hide now has the same form as when removed 

 from the animal, the hair side is clean and white, the body side devoid 

 of all superfluous tissue, the back of the ears still showing the black 

 epidermal layer of the skin, as it is only from these parts where it is 

 not scraped off with the hair ; the hair also is left on the skin of the 

 lower halves of the four limbs. 



"A. thorough washing is now given it in several changes of clear, 

 cold water, though sometimes in the last wash the water may be made 

 slightly tepid, and in this it is allowed to stand while the tanner pre- 

 pares the brains of the animal soon to be used in another stage of his 

 work. Picking up the deer's skull from the ashes where he had left it 

 the night before, he took an ax and split it along the bifrontal suture, 

 cleaving the skull partly in two, then chipping oft* the parietal bones he 

 was enabled to lift out the brains nearly entire. They were at once 

 transferred to a basin of tepid water, where by gentle manipulation the 

 little slivers of the bone (which had gotten into it while splitting the 

 cranium), the blood, etc., were effectually removed. Next they were 

 placed in a small quantity of tepid water in another basin and put upou 

 a low fire, where they were allowed to simmer for over an hour. At 

 the end of this time the water, then being not so hot but that one could 

 comfortably hold his hand in it, had come to be of a muddy color, and 

 our tanner, using the fingers of one hand as a sieve, lifted out from the 

 water the little particles of brain in a small pile upon the palm of his 

 opposite hand; then, by rubbing this together between the palms of 

 his hands, it was soon reduced to a pasty mass. This process was con- 

 tinued until all the brains were thus reduced and dissolved, and then 

 the water in which they were had about three times its quantity of 

 tepid water added to it, nearly filling the small basin. 



"Eeturuiug to the skin, it was now removed from the water where it 

 had been left, carefully rinsed, and wrung out with the hands much as 



