306 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES, 



stove, keeping the pelt moist as before, and the operation is continued 

 until the entire skin has been unhaired. In order that the hairs ma}- be 

 easily removed, it is necessary to heat the skin to the limit which it 

 will stand without injury, and much experience is required to determine 

 this limit. Many skins have been so injured in the unhairing that the 

 fur loosens and readily comes out after a few weeks' wear. 



For economy of time, a workman general!}^ operates on three or 

 four skins at the same time, unhairing one while the others are warm- 

 ing. The hairs must be pulled out and not broken off. Care is also 

 taken to avoid removing the fur with the overhairs, and thus leaving 

 bare spots on the pelt. Even after the above process stagy skins 

 retain many short or second-growth hairs which reach a short distance 

 above the fur. Many of these nmy be removed liy the picker warm- 

 ing the skin and passing a dull beaming-knife rapidly over the fur. 

 When the skins are very stagy they are sometimes unhaired in part 

 from the skin side. The roots of the hair penetrate the membrane 

 farther than those of the fur, and when the skin is pared down thin 

 the hairs may be pulled out b}^ grasping the base of the roots. 



The skins are next stretched and nailed on boards and dried very 

 hard, the drying continuing from two to five days to remove every 

 particle of moisture. On removal the}^ present the appearance of thin, 

 uneven boards with little curls of brown fur on one side; these may 

 be cracked or split b}^ a person walking on them almost as readil}^ as 

 though of wood. 



When opportunity presents, the dried skins are dampened on the 

 pelt side with fresh or salt water and skived or shaved on a beam with 

 a currier's knife to a thin, even surface. Salt is used in the water to 

 prevent the fur from coming loose, but too much salt ' ' cuts " the 

 leather, and its use is not desirable except in hot weather. Some 

 dressers postpone this shaving until after the fur has been dyed, but 

 others are so annoyed by the grease coming out of the thick mem- 

 brane and interfering with the d3^eing of the fur that the}^ thin the 

 pelt at this stage of the process. The pelts are stretched and partly 

 dried, being "worked" in the meantime to prevent their drying stiff 

 and hard. 



The pelt side is then covered with butter or other animal grease, 

 and the skins are softened or leathered by tramping them in tubs, with 

 a (juantity of fine or veneer hard-wood sawdust, or in a tramping 

 machine built on the principle of a fulling mill (see p. 292). This 

 leathering is continued until the grease is driven thoroughly into the 

 pelt, requiring from two to four hours in either the tramping tul) or the 

 fulling machine. The skins are then cleaned free of grease by revolv- 

 ing them with a ((uantity of line sawdust, and this is in turn removed 

 in the beating drum, thus terminating the operation of dressing. 



Next comes the (hieing pi-ocess. All holes and d(>fective spots arc 

 first mended. If the pelts have been already partly shaved, a sheet of 



