DYEING AND DRESSING OF FURS 79 



When you examine fur closely, you find three layers — the 

 rough over hairs, the thick pelage or fur proper, the down next the 

 skin. Open the rough over hairs with your fingers. Below the 

 fur proper open to the down ; and in the most of furs when undyed 

 the fur is lighter in color next to the skin. In many furs, the 

 under fur, or down, is a light drab, or pale blue. The beauty of 

 the pelt in fox is ascribed to the lustre and depth of the over hair, 

 in beaver to the pelage proper, and in chinchilla and mole and 

 squirrel, to the pelage and the down. 



There are only two commercial ways of skinning the fur beaver : 



(1) The way a sheep is skinned, by cutting down the belly and 

 opening off" the pelt the way a man takes off his coat. 



(2) By slitting up the hind legs and peeling off the pelt, the way 

 a woman takes off her glove. 



Pelts skinned by a long front cut are stretched flat. Pelts 

 peeled off are stretched with a dull edged board shoved inside as 

 you stretch a pair of shoes with a shoe tree. Peeled pelts are 

 described as "cased." The pelts commonly "cased" are fox, 

 fisher, marten, weasel, otter, skunk, lynx, cat, muskrat. The pelts 

 taken off by an open cut are beaver, bear and all the large furs. 

 Tail and claws should be left on and the shape of the head left un- 

 impaired. Before stretching the skin, all fats and flesh should 

 be carefully scraped off; as they will cause decomposition and 

 weakening of the skin. The fats of the skunk and the seal are so 

 valuable, they are rendered into oil ; and in case of the Hair Seals 

 and Harp Seals of Newfoundland and Labrador, the oils are valuable 

 as the pelts. 



The trapper should wrap each separate skin in separate burlap, 

 and sew the fine skins in muslin, and to prevent injury, they should 

 be boxed for shipment to the buyer. Either a dull knife, or a bone 

 knife, should be used for scraping. Even the flat board on which 

 the skin is laid for scraping should have dulled edges to avoid 

 creasing and cracking the skin, where it will afterwards split. 

 Some dealers say, "Don't scrape the skin," by which they mean, 



