FUR FACTS 37 



said that he wanted trunks lined like the last order. The manu- 

 facturer quite naturally was very much bewildered and set out to 

 investigate. He called on the merchant to whom he had sold the 

 trunks and for the first time he saw one of his own cases lined with 

 the plucked seal. He hurried back to his shop and finally after a 

 lot of scolding and threatening he managed to get the story bit by 

 bit from the workmen as to how the accident had occurred, they of 

 course feeling that something terrible would happen to them on 

 account of the mistake. After hearing the story the manufacturer 

 tried the same method of wetting the skins and heating them. The 

 result was amazing; the top hair pulled out easily leaving the soft 

 beautiful under fur; and this, so it is said, was the beginning of the 

 plucking process. This trunk manufacturer had a great rush of busi- 

 ness and he had practically a monopoly, until the story got out and 

 every trunk maker began dumping barrels of water on the seal skins 

 and plucking them after they were dried before a hot fire. 



Later on, more careful study was given to the matter and a more 

 scientific method evolved for the plucking of seal; but today seal 

 skins are plucked in much the same manner, they are placed in a 

 room with a very high degree of heat for a certain length of time 

 and then taken out and a man with a long dull knife, known as an 

 unhairer, plucks out the guard hairs. 



The reason that the top fur will pull out and the soft underfur 

 remains in, is that the guard hair is deeper seated than the soft under- 

 fur, the bulb of the guard hair being closer to the surface of the pelt 

 side. The pelt side is scraped down until the bulb of the guard hair 

 is almost exposed. The bulb of the guard hair is a little sack or 

 pocket similar to the root of any other hair; and when it is exposed to 

 a strong heat this bulb explodes by the steam that is formed in it 

 and then it is very easily extracted or plucked out. 



After the discovery that seal could be plucked and that they were 

 more beautiful and soft in their plucked state than in their natural 

 state, they were made into fur garments. Some time later an enter- 

 prising dyer conceived the idea of dyeing them a rich brown, and for 

 many years seals were brown in color, in fact it created a new color 

 known as "seal brown". Later on they were dyed a color almost 

 black but still retaining a brown glaze and the rich brown under- 

 ground. 



The muskrat is treated in a similar manner to the Alaska seal 

 except that the muskrat fur is not plucked but is sheared, that is the 



