AMENDED TRANSLATIONS. 173 



The frames are always prepared in Sitka, and are sent to the islands. 

 Their cost is not calculated, on account of its insignificance. 



REQUIRED FOR THE SALTING- OF SEALSKINS. 



Eonbloa. 



The casks contain an average of 73 skins and cost 5 roubles; the iron hoops 

 and fastenings weigh 17 pounds, costing 6.80 roubles, a total of 11.80 

 roubles, making for 1 skin 0. 16 



For the preliminary salting on the islands, 3£ pounds of salt are used for 

 each skin; during the final salting at New Archangel, 8 poods of salt are 

 added to each cask of 73 skins, making 4.4 pounds for each skin, a total of 

 7.9 pounds of salt 79 



For tying each skin, 1£ zol. twine 02J 



For the wear and. tear of cooper's tools and material, approximately, for each 

 skin 01 



Total 98£ 



To this must be added the pay of the Aleuts for each bachelor sealskin 75 



Total 1.73J 



Concerning the processes employed in the preparation of the skins, ac- 

 cording- to both methods, I have the honor to report to the board of 

 administration : 



The dried sealskins are prepared as follows : After separating the 

 skin from the meat and carefully removing the blubber, the skin is 

 stretched upon a frame, remaining thus until it is finally dried. After 

 removing the skin from the frame it is folded twice lengthwise and 

 packed in bales containing from 50 to 100 skins, according to size, and 

 finally the bales are bound with sea-lion straps. 



'1 he salted sealskins, in accordance with Mollison's process, inclosed 

 in the dispatch of the board of administration (No. 81, of January 25, 

 1860), are prepared in the following way: 



After the skins are removed and stripped of meat, they are strewn 

 with salt and stacked in kenches with the others; later, when the 

 laborers have more time, the skins are taken from the kenches and the 

 inner side of each skin is covered with a thick layer of salt. Another 

 skin is laid on top of this with its inner side down. The edges of the 

 skins are turned up on the outer side, so as not to let the salt fall out; 

 they are rolled up into round bundles with the fur side out, and are 

 strongly tied with seine twine. Afterwards these bundles are tied 

 together in packages of from five to ten bundles each. 



Though the labor of carrying the skins on the shoulders of men and 

 women, the carrying of salt from the beach to the salt houses, and 

 later the carrying of the heavy salted skins from the warehouse to the 

 beach, to be loaded into baidaras for transmisson to the ship, is very 

 great, still the process of drying presents still greater difficulties on 

 account of the constant fog and rain prevailing on the Pribilof Islands. 

 It may be positively stated that of the 25,000 dried skins prepared an- 

 nually on these islands, only one- fifth can be dried in the open air. The 

 remainder are dried in sod houses, by means of fires, or in the huts of 

 the Aleuts, which are already cramped and suffocating. For this rea- 

 son, and also on account of the difficulty of obtaining wood in quantities 

 sufficient for the drying of sealskins, the salting by the Mollison method 

 offers the greater advantage. 



