"NICE POINTS" OF THE WORK. 163 



the harp seal, the dryer and older the better, since they stand more 

 wear the older they are. The pattern of the sole is an oblong 

 oval, while the tongue or top piece is more or less lance-shaped. 

 After soaking over night in water to soften it, the sole is taken 

 and the whole edge for about an inch and a half is bent mward, 

 then the toe is puckered in creases, as is also the heel, while the 

 tongue fits the space left after the bootleg is temporarily fastened on, 

 all the pieces overlapping enough to allow for sewing. These puck- 

 erings are made by simple creases of the needle at the time of 

 sewing. All seams are made — if the sewing is done in a scientific 

 manner, and not simply to ''sell the boot," as the expression goes — 

 by the simple overlapping of the two pieces and sewing each edge 

 tightly to the part beneath, while the ridge thus made by the seam, 

 if rubbed with a piece of wood shoemaker fashion, will be hard and 

 shiny as well as very tight. In all sewing the skin is so thick that 

 the needle can be run through it and out the same side without 

 perforating the skin ; thus a seam admits no water through the 

 sewing, if the thread and overlapping pieces are drawn tight. 



The upper edge of the bootleg has a doubled piece of cloth sewn 

 around its edge, though sometimes sealskin replaces it, through 

 which a piece of tape or braid of any color to suit the wearer, 

 about a yard and a half long, is threaded, and the skin, being quite 

 flexible when on the foot, is drawn tightly about the leg, the 

 braid wound about twice and tied with the string end hanging out- 

 ward ; this secures the boot firmly and yet not painfiilly to the foot 

 by the leg and, though the string often gets loose and the bootleg 

 often slips down, it seldom gives much trouble to the wearer. 



A curious operation that might escape one's attention, as well as 

 a curious fact in connection with this operation, is that the pucker- 

 ings of the heel are held together by running two, three, or four 

 small threads at about equal distances from each other — the stitches 

 being taken through the bend in the creases on the inside of the 

 boot, from side to side, around the heel where they are drawn 

 tight and fastened to the seam above ; another fact is that the 

 creases of the toe are not thus fastened. Why the former should be 



