1793* of captain Billings. 15 



vet, and in my opinion superior in the preparation 

 to the flieep Ikin ftiubes worn bjr the common people 

 here. 



He acknowledges they h«ve little more than tw3 

 months with the ground clear of snow where he lives, 

 on the coast of the sea of Ochotik ; that nothing will 



by no means rejected even by the ladies, as the roe of fifli is a choice 

 dainty amongst the Ichthiophagi. 



The filh grease is then thoroughly rubbed in, not only on the surface 

 but between the hands, to render the fkin soft and pliant ; and the 

 procefs ultimately finilhes (when the leather is to remain of its natu- 

 ral colour,) by sewing it up in form of a sack, and replacing it in the 

 stream ot smoke, till it is so completely penetrated, as to become of 

 a yellow colour, the mark that it is ready for use. But for most pur- 

 poses, as wearing apparel for example, it-is dyed of a dark red colour, 

 by steeping in an acqueous decoction of alder tree bark. The a- 

 bove preparation is applicable not only to the leather which consti- 

 tutes their summer drefs, but like'wise to their winter fiu-s, from the 

 same animal ; as in tanning of the last, they ouly apply their dung, 

 grease, and labour to one side, omitting the steeping in water, tvhicU 

 was merely intended in the former procefs to loosen the hair, which 

 is here to be preserved. The fur upon the whole seems very com- 

 fortable, soft, and strong, whilst it is without any smell of the fifli oil 

 used in its preparation ; but indeed it has had time to lose it in run- 

 ning through ten thousand miles of air. 



A very remarkable part of the above domestic mode of tanning, is 

 the application of the rein deer's dung, as a species of caustic to take 

 off the hair; and it attracts my attention the more from its resem- 

 blance to what is employed for the same purpose in preparing the 

 smaller liides for the Rufsian leather, iin. dog's dung diluted in 

 boiling water, which is certainly of a dry and probably caustic nature; 

 whilst for the larger, two parts of wood afhes to one of quick lime 

 difsolved likewise in boiling water. As to the rest of the procefs, the 

 Kufsians tan their leather with the bark of the salix areiiaria, and 

 soften it afterwards with the oil of hiich per campa7i, extracted from 

 the bark, wliich gives it that strong smell so peculiar to the Rufsian 

 .leather, and which renders it so useful in keeping off many genera qi 

 insects. Here the cmpyreumatic oil drawn from, the birch baik (by 



