FUR-SEAL SERVICE. 



89 



afforded, it is believed that the skm on the live animal is in a state 

 of tension, varying in degree as the animal may be fat or lean — if 

 fat, the tension is greater; if lean, the tension is less. A contraction 

 of the skin seems to occur immediately upon its removal from the 

 animal; whether this is due to the releasmg of the natural tension 

 of the skin, or whether there is an actual muscular contraction due 

 to the reflex of nuiscles which continued to contract for a short 

 period after death, it is not possible to say. It is certain, however, 

 that as accurate a measurement of the green skin as can be made 

 show^s that it is inches shorter and narrower than before its removal 

 from the body. The effect of saltmg w^as to increase in every in- 

 stance the size of the green skin as ascertained previous to salting. 

 However, neither the length nor the width of the salted skm equals 

 that of the same skin on the animal. This can be made more appar- 

 ent by a scrutiny of the table of comparative sizes of green and 

 salted skins, with the length and width of that skin on the animal. 

 On July 27, 10 skins were picked out at random from those lying 

 on the pile with only the hair side exposed, and were weighed just 

 as thej^ came from the field. After this first weighing they were 

 given to expert skinners with instructions to remove carefully all 

 blubber from each pelt. After the blubber w^as so removed the 

 skins were weighed again and salted. On August 1 and 7 they were 

 again weighed. The results of the w^eighmg are here given in detail: 



Weights of Sealskins With and Without Blubber and Before and After 



!SaltinQ. 



This is an interesting experiment on the effect of salt upon skins 

 from wliich all blubber w^as removed before salting. These skins 

 when salted green, however, were dry, i. e., carried no moisture other 

 than the animal juices, wliereas after salting they w^ere dripping wet 

 from tlie water in tlie bottom of the kench, where they had been salted. 

 The result, nevertheless, would indicate that tlie greatest loss in 

 weight through salting occurs from the blubber adhering to the skins, 

 and not from the skins themselves. 



The net result of all these experiments is to show conclusively that 

 sealskins do not gain weight in salt, but on the contraiy lose weight 



