8G ALASKA. 



remaining coarser hairs. It will be seen that great care must 

 be used, as the skin is in that soft state that too much pressure 

 of the knife would take the fur also ; indeed, bare spots are 

 made; carelessly-cured skins are sometimes worthless on this 

 account. The skins are next dried, afterward dami^ened on the 

 l)elt side, and shaved to a fine, even surface. They are then 

 stretched, worked, and dried ; afterward softened in a fulling- 

 mill, or by treading them with the bare feet in a hogshead, one 

 head being removed and the cask placed nearly upright, into 

 which the workman gets with a lew skins and some fine, hard- 

 wood sawdust, to absorb the grease while he dances upon them 

 to break them into leather. If the skins have been shaved 

 thin, as required when finished, any defective spots or holes 

 must now be mended, the skin smoothed and pasted with paper 

 on the i^elt-side, or two pasted together to protect the pelt in 

 dyeing. The usual process in the United States is to leave the 

 pelt sufiQciently thick to protect them without i^asting. 



" In dyeing, the liquid dye is put on with a brush, carefully 

 covering the points of the standing fur. After lying folded, 

 with the points touching each other, for some little time, the 

 skins are hung up and dried. The dry dye is then removed, 

 another coat applied, dried, and removed, an<l so on until the 

 required shade is obtained. One or two of these coats of dye are 

 put on much heavier and pressed down to the roots of the fur, 

 making what is called the ground. From eight to twelve coats 

 are required to produce a good color. The skins are then 

 washed clean, the fur dried, the pelt moist. They are shaved 

 down to the required thickness, dried, working them some 

 v» hile drying, then soltened in a hogshead, and sometimes run 

 in a revolving cylinder with fine sawdust to clean them. The 

 English i)rocess does not have the washing after dyeing. 



" I should perhaps say that, with all the care used, many skins 

 are greatly injured in the working. Quite a quantity of En- 

 glish dyed seal were sold last season for $17, damaged in the 

 dye. 



" The above is a general process, but we are obliged to vary 

 for different skins; those from various parts of the world 

 require different treatment, and there is quite a difiiirence in 

 the skins from the Seal Islands of our country — I sometimes 

 think about as much as in the human race. 

 " Yours, with respect, 



"GEO. C. TREAD WELL & CO. 



" n. W. Elliott, Esq." 



