82 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



morning they are placed in a tramping machine, where they are 

 tramped for eight or ten hours. The machine works about 2000 

 pelts at a time. 



"The pelts are next covered with a mixture of sawdust and salt 

 water, and remain so overnight. The following morning, they 

 are cut open down the front and are then fleshed, one man being 

 able to flesh 200 to 300 a day. The skins are next stretched and 

 hung up to dry. When thoroughly dry, they are again moistened 

 with salt water on the leather side, remaining so overnight. They 

 are next brushed on the flesh side with animal fat — butter or fish 

 oil and tallow — and laid in pairs, with fur side out. After remain- 

 ing overnight they are placed in tramping machines and worked 

 for six or eight hours, or until thoroughly soft and pliable. They 

 are then stretched in every direction. 



"The next process is cleaning. The skins, to the number of 

 300 or 400, are placed with sawdust in revolving drums exposed to 

 steam heat. They are revolved for about three hours, when the 

 sawdust will have completely absorbed the grease. The skins are 

 next incased in a beating drum, where they are revolved for two or 

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

 is cleaned with a comb. The heavier pelts are fleshed down thin, 

 thus completing the operation of dressing for the majority of 

 skins." 



Come now to the treatment of special furs. The Germans 

 excel in the dressing of lamb, squirrels, cats' skins, beaver ; the 

 English in the dressing of chinchilla, marten, sable, skunk, fox, 

 seals ; and now with the War disrupting not only the trade in skins 

 but the workers available, it is a question if the American dressers 

 have not come up in excellence on a par with both countries. Cer- 

 tainly, the skin dressed and dyed in America to-day cannot be 

 detected from the skin dressed and dyed in Europe. 



As the process of seal dyeing is now in the Courts, little can be 

 said about it except that the excellence of the English system is 

 ascribed to a certain proportion of copper dust, antimony, camphor, 



