UTILIZATION OF THE SKINS OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 315 

 DRESSING MU8KKAT SKINS. 



At the fur-dresser's, mu.skrat skins are first dampened on the pelt 

 or flesh side with salt water and permitted to so remain over night, 

 for the purpose of softening. The following morning the skins are 

 placed in a tramping machine, where the}^ are fulled or tramped for 

 eight or ten hours. Formerly the tubbing process was used, but the 

 tramping machine is much more economical and is now emplo3"ed for 

 these skins by nearly all dressers. In tubbing, a good operator can 

 work 100 muskrat pelts in a da}^ whereas a tramping machine can work 

 2,000 in the same length of time. 



The pelts are next covered with a mixture or paste of sawdust and 

 salt water and so remain over night. The water is used to keep the 

 pelt soft, the salt to prevent the hair from falling out in the heating, 

 and the sawdust to hold the moisture. The following morning the 

 skins are cut open down the front, provided they are cased, as is the 

 general rule, and are then fleshed, in the manner described on page 

 292, one man being able to flesh 200 to 300 per day. They are now 

 stretched lengthways and crossways and hung up to dry. When 

 thoroughly dry, in the leather as well as in the hair, they are again 

 moistened with salt water on the leather side, remaining thus over 

 night. They are next brushed on the leather side with animal fat, 

 such as butter or fish oil and tallow, most of the grease being placed 

 in the center, and the skins laid in pairs with the hair side out. ' After 

 remaining thus over night, they are placed in tramping machines and 

 worked constanth' for 6 or 8 hours or until thoroughly soft and pliable. 

 On removal from the tramping machines the skins are stretched in 

 every direction. 



At this stage the fur has a dirt}^, greas}' and uninviting- appearance, 

 the grease and sawdust having worked into it during the preceding 

 operations. The skins are placed in quantities of 300 or 400 with 

 sawdust in revolving cleaning drums; where, exposed to steam heat 

 or charcoal fire, they are revolved for about three hours, the sawdust 

 by that time having completely absorbed the grease, leaving the fur 

 clean and soft. They are next inclosed in a beating drum, previousl}^ 

 described (see pp. 293), where they are revolved for two or three 

 hours. On removal they are beaten with rattans and the fur cleaned 

 with a comb. The pelt of many muskrats is quite thick, and these are 

 selected out at this stage of the process and fleshed down, thus com- 

 pleting the operation of dressing with the exception of plucking. 



Plucking is performed the same as in case of beaver pelts, except 

 that it IS done after the pelt has been dressed rather than before; after 

 plucking, the fur is again cleaned and the process is ended. Twenty 

 years ago 85 per cent of the muskrats were plucked, but at present 

 the conditions are reversed and only a very small percentage are so 

 treated. Indeed, on one occasion the writer spent nearly two hours 



