102 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



As treatment varies so much, it is impossible to list the operations a 

 given skin goes through. Marten, for instance, has a tender skin and 

 has to be given hand treatment. Mink and fox are treated in a Cana- 

 dian fur-dressing establishment about as follows: 



Fox Mink 



Pounded Pounded 



Wet with wet sawdust Soaked to soften head 



Fleshed Fleshed 



Salt water put on skin Flesh pickled 



Dried Dried 



Broke in foot-tub Drummed with sawdust 



Buttered or greased Greased and pounded 



Tubbed Stretched 



Cleaned with sawdust in drum Drummed (sawdust) 



Dried Stretched 



Polished in drum with sawdust Drummed (sawdust) 



Stretched and beaten 



Dyed 



^, „ " At the fur dresser's the skins are first dampened 



The Process n • t • 



of Manufacture* on the flesh side with salt water and left all night 



to soften. The following morning they are placed 

 in a tramping machine, where they are tramped for eight or ten 

 hours. The machine works about 2,000 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 in 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 



* An abridgment from Chas. H. Stevenson's report in that of the 

 United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries for 1902. 



