THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 151 



34. THE METHOD OF DRESSING THE FUR SEAL SKIN. 



. How SEAL-SKINS ARE DRESSED. — As a matter of interest to so large a proportion of our people who delight 

 in the possession of, or covet, a seal-skin sacque, I have taken the liberty of republishing the following letter in a 

 previous brochure ; and, as it answers now equally well, in reply to the query as to how the natural seal-skin is 

 tanned, plucked, and dyed so as to pass the ordeal of fashionable dress-parade, I herewith reproduce it, stating 

 simply, in doiug so, that the writer is a very successful operator, and one whose work, when finished from his hands, 

 is said to be always equal, and often superior, to the best English manufacture. It was written to me in answer 

 to my question, by the senior member of the firm undersigned : 



Albajjy, October 22, 1874. 



Sir: The Alaska Commercial Company sold in London, December, 1873, about 60,000 skins taken from the islands leased by our 

 government, of the catch of 1873. The remainder of the catch, about 40,000, ivere sold in March. This company have made the collection 

 of seal from these islands much more valuable than they were before their lease, by the care used by them in curing the skins and takin" 

 them only when in season. We have worked this class of seal for several years — when they were owned by the Russian American Fur 

 Company, and during the first year they were owned bj' our government. 



When the skins are received by us iu the salt, we wash off the salt, placing them upon a beam somewhat like a tanner's beam, removing 

 the fat from the flesh side with a beamiug-kuife, care being required that no cuts or uneven places are made iu the pelt. The skins are 

 next washed iu water and placed upon the beam with the fur up, and the grease and water removed by the knife. The skins are then 

 dried by moderate heat, being tacked out on frames to keep them smooth. After being fully dried, they are soaked in water and thoroughly 

 cleansed with soap and water. In some cases they can be imhaired without this drying process, and cleansed before drying. After the 

 cleansing process they pass 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-knLfe, 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 bo 

 again warmed at the stove, the pelt being kept moist. When the outer hairs have been mostly removed, he usi 8 a beaming-knife to work 

 out the finer 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, afterward dampened on the pelt 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 few skins and some fine, 

 hardwood sawdust, to absorb the grease while he dances upon them to break thenj 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 dyeing. The usual process in the United States, is to leave the pelt sufficiently thick to protect 

 them without pasting. 



In dyeing, the liiiuid 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, diied, 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 i)ressed 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 iu a hogshead, and sometimes run in a revolving cylinder with fine sawdust to clean them. The English process 

 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 English dyed 

 seal-skins 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 difference in the skins from the seal-islands of our country — I sometimes think about as much as in tha 

 human race. 



Yours, with respect, 



GEO. C. TEEADWELL &. CO. 

 H. W. Elliott, Esq. 



Fur-seal skins are op perjianent value. — I have frequently been asked whether, in the light of probable 

 caprices of fashion, the value of fur-seal skins would at times shrink to a mere nominal figure, or not. I think 

 the history of this trade during the last twenty years, at least, and since the skins have been treated for market at* 

 above recited, that this record shows the fur-seal skin to be an article of intrinsic value, just as objects of luxurious 

 gold and silver work, of precious stones, are, and always will be, no matter what the style may decree. That 

 the demand made by the "mode" will sensibly appreciate their fixed high value is also very certain, as it does so 

 to-day; but, withdraw it, the sealskin is still a costly purchase to the wearer, and will ever be so. 



35. BERING, NOT BEHRING. 



Bering, himself, wrote his name, "Bering".— I, myself, do not understand the reason why a false sound 

 should be given to this navigator's name, when our alphabet is fully equal to its correct rendition. Here is the way 

 the Russians write it, and Bering himself signed his name Cji pn n rx ^ B e r i n g , (or B e r e n g), exactly in our owu 

 letter sounds. Yet this unwarranted corruption of the true equivalent of a celebrated name continues to be the 

 common form of its expression by publication iu England and this country. The Russians and the Danes sound the 

 letter "r" in Bering precisely as we do; and the softened flattened sound of "r", indicated by Behring, is an error 

 that should be avoided. It is originally a German corruption. Those Teutonic writers have made the Russian 



