3 o6 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



to the picker, who dries the fur by stove-heat, the pelt being kept 

 moist. When the fur is dry he places the skin on a beam, and 

 while it is warm he removes the main coat of hair with a dull 

 shoe-knife, grasping the hair with his thumb and knife, the thumb 

 being protected by a rubber cob. The hair must be pulled out, 

 not broken. After a portion is removed the skin must be again 

 warmed at the stove, the pelt being kept moist. When the outer 

 hairs have been mostly removed, he uses a beaming-knife to work 

 out the fine hairs (which are shorter), and the 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, afterwards dampened on the pelt side, and shaved to a fine, 

 even surface. They are then stretched, worked, and dried, after- 

 wards 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 few skins and 

 some fine hardwood saw-dust, 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 pelt side, or two pasted together to protect the pelt 

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

 pelt sufficiently thick to protect them without pasting. 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 time, the skins are hung up and dried. The 

 dry dye is then removed, and 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 colour. The skins are then washed clean, the fur 

 dried, the pelt moist. They are shaved down to the required 

 thickness, dried, working them some time while drying, then 

 softened in a hogshead, and sometimes run in a revolving cylinder 

 with fine saw-dust to clean them. The English process does not 

 have the washing after dyeing." 



Fur-Seals are also hunted in the open sea, at times when the 

 herds are migrating. The United States endeavoured to put an 



