90 FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OP ALASKA IN 1912. 



through the action of the salt on them. Were it possible to have all 

 skins taken off the carcass with a uniform thickness of blubber adlier- 

 ing, to have them at the time of salting each carry the same amount 

 of moisture, and to have each absorb the same amount of moisture 

 while in salt, it is certain that each sldn would show the same per- 

 centage of loss in weight through salting. It is impossible, however, 

 to have these conditions uniform. If the day be dry, the fur on the 

 skin will be dry, and will be salted without moisture other than that 

 furnished by the natural animal juices in the pelt. If the seals on 

 such a day are "dipped" in a pond before IdUing, as often occurs, 

 or if rain be falling at the time of killing, the skins will reach the salt 

 house with varying quantities of moisture and be salted in such con- 

 dition. When afterwards the skins are weighed out of salt, the differ- 

 ing amounts of moisture in them undoubtedly will affect accordingly 

 the percentage of loss in weight. 



It must be understood, also, that moisture, both from that carried 

 in the fur, if the fur be wet when salted, and that extracted from the 

 pelt itself by the action of the salt, is expressed from the skins in salt 

 by the pressure of the skins above when salted in the kench and when 

 in the pile known as the book. Water always is found on the floors 

 of kenches, and those skins at the bottom are immersed in it. Like- 

 wise, there is always seepage from the book of liquid from the upper 

 skins which saturates those skins salted below them. Wlien these wet 

 skins are weighed out of salt they must of necessity weigh more, 

 because of the presence of this moisture, than those from which the 

 moisture has been extracted, thereby causing a variation in the per- 

 centage of loss in weight tln"Ough salting. 



It must be remembered, furthermore, that probably no two skin- 

 ners skin seals aUke. Some skinners unknowingly leave more blub- 

 ber on than do others. Some leave a uniformly thin layer of blubber 

 over the entire skin, and others, because of a relative lack of skiU, 

 will leave irregular patches of blubber of varying thickness. Others, 

 because of an eccentric manner of holding the skinning knife, will 

 shave the skin closely with the point, but will leave the blubber much 

 thicker toward the haft. If the skin carries blubber of equal thick- 

 ness over its whole surface, necesssarily the action of the salt wiU be 

 uniform over the entire skin. If, on the other hand, the skin con- 

 tains blubber in areas of uneven thickness, or if it carries blubber on 

 some portions and no blubber on other portions, the action of the 

 salt will be unequal in effect, because salt can not penetrate a thick 

 mass of blubber as quickly as a thin layer. 



So also, new salt, which contains many fine particles as well as 

 the coarse grains, wiU act more quickly and effectively upon skins than 

 will old salt. The smaller particles in the new more readily dissolve 

 and form solution; besides, the old salt has become more or less 



