NELSON] SKIN DRESSING BUY 
clothing, it is soaked thoroughly in urine to remove the fat, then 
stretched, seraped, and dried in the manner described, 
The beautifully white, parchment-like leather used for boots and 
ornamental work is made from small sealskins from which the hair has 
been removed. The skin is then soaked in urine to free it from the oil, 
stretched upon the drying frame and exposed in the open air during 
the coldest months of winter; the intense cold and the beating of the 
dry snow upon the surface of the skin bleaches it to a satiny whiteness. 
A finer quality of white leather is obtained from the gullets of large 
seals and walrus treated in the same manner. The russet-colored seal- 
skin, used for ornamental work, is made by washing the surface of this 
white, parchment-like leather with dye obtained from alder bark. 
The skin of the wolf-fish (Annarrichas lupus), called kéd-chi-hlik by 
the Eskimo, when stretched and dried makes a thin, blackish, parchment- 
like material, which is eut into narrow strips and frequently welted into 
the seams of boots and other articles of clothing, or used for other 
ornamental purposes. The white woolly skin of the new-born fur seal, 
after being tanned, is dyed a rich brown by an infusion of alder bark 
and cut into narrow strips for borders to 
garments or for making tassels for boots Racer erie a 
and frocks. cA 
To tan reindeer skin with the hair on, 
the fleshy side of the skin is wetted with 
urine; it is then rolled into a compact 
bundle, with the hair side outward, and 
permitted to remain a few hours in the 
warm kashim, after which it is unrolled 54... 53 yrethou of folding vealskin. 
and any remaining fragments of sinew or 4 
flesh are removed with a scraper. It is then dried and again thor- 
oughly scraped and hung up open in the kashim while a fire is 
burning, and dried until it becomes hard and almost as brittle as 
pasteboard, when it is taken down and scraped carefully and lightly 
on the inner side. This breaks the grain of the leather and covers 
the epidermis at the roots of the hair with numberless little cracks, 
rendering the skin very pliable. After this treatment the skin is 
scraped again more thoroughly, and boiled fish eggs, while still warm, 
are rubbed on the inner surface. It is then rolled up and permitted to 
lie for a few hours, after which it is unrolled and worked and rubbed 
between the hands until it becomes dry and soft; a final seraping then 
removes any remaining roughness or adherent matter and completes 
the process of tanning. Reindeer skins tanned in this manner are 
beautifully white on the inside and the leather is as soft and pliable as 
chamois skin. 
Small skins are soaked in urine to remove the fat, after which they 
are stretched and worked with the hands and finally rubbed with 
pieces of pumice until dry. Urine is so much used in tanning and for 
