AMPHIBIAN MILLIONS. 349 



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 dyeing. 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 cover- 

 ing 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, another coat applied, dried, 

 and 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 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 while drying, then softened in a hogshead, and some- 

 times run in a revolving cylinder with fine sawdust to clean them. 

 The English process does not have the washing after dyeing." 



On account of the fact that all labor in this country, especially 

 skilled labor, commands so much more per diem in the return of 

 wages than it does in London or Belgium, it is not practicable for 

 the Alaska Commercial Company, or any other company here, to 

 attempt to dress and put upon the market its catch of Bering Sea, 

 which is in fact the entire catch of the whole world. Our people 

 understand the theory of dressing these skins perfectly ; but they 

 cannot compete with the cheaper labor of the Old World. There- 

 fore, nine-tenths, nearly, of the fur-seal skins taken every year are 

 annually purchased and dressed in London, and from thence 

 distributed all over the civilized world where furs are worn and 

 prized. 



The great variation in the value of seal-skin sacks, ranging from 

 seventy-five dollars up to three hundred and fifty dollars, and even 

 five hundred dollars, is not often due to a variance in the quality 

 of the fur originally ; but it is due to that quality of the work 

 whereby the fur was treated and prepared for wear. For instance, 

 cheap sacks are so defectively dyed that a little moisture causes 

 them to soil the collars and cuff's of their owners, and a little ex- 

 posure makes them speedily fade and look ragged. A properly 

 dyed skin, one that has been conscientiously and laboriously fin- 

 ished (for it is a labor requiring great patience and great skill), will 



