220 FUR FACTS 



they have. The seal is an intelligent animal and has been trained 

 to do marvelous tricks of balancing. It seems to be an affectionate 

 animal and easily trained, and it is necessary for the person doing the 

 killing to be a real butcher. A bungler, who is not expert in seal 

 killing and who would not hit a hard blow, would probably have a 

 difficult time clubbing a seal to death. After the seals have been 

 killed they are dragged into line, then stuck and "flippered." In 

 other words they are stabbed to the heart and allowed to bleed freely. 

 Then a knife is drawn around the head and flippers, severing the 

 skin and leaving it ready for the skinners, who split it up in short 

 order and spread the skin evenly on the grass flesh side down to cool. 

 After the skin is removed the carcass is stripped of the blubber or 

 fat. The skins are then salted with a heavy coarse salt, and are 

 folded and rolled in compact bundles, tied with a rope, and placed 

 in large wooden casks ready for shipment. The skins are then ready 

 to be sent to market to be dressed and dyed and made into fur gar- 

 ments. 



The Dressing and Dyeing oj Seals 



The dressing and dyeing of seal skins is a process that requires 

 several months. The seal skins are flrst scraped free of all super- 

 fluous meat and fat. This is called blubbering. The loose salt is 

 shaken from the skin. The skin is then placed hair side down on a 

 beam, the ears being cut off if they have been left on, and all salt 

 and dirt removed. The skin is then turned over with the pelt side 

 up on the beam with the head held at the top, and the superfluous 

 blubber and meat is all removed with a dull knife, care being taken 

 not to cut the grain of the skin. After this is done the skins are 

 washed in hot water containing a solution of soda. This washing 

 process is kept up until the skins are thoroughly cleansed. The 

 skins are then unhaired, that is the long top guard hairs are plucked 

 out leaving the soft underfur, which is about odc half inch in length 

 and light chocolate brown in color. The skins are then leathered, 

 that is the pelts are dressed and the hide converted into soft pliable 

 leather. The dressing of the skins is done with the natural seal oil, 

 which is rendered from the blubber that is first scraped from the skin. 

 After the leathering process the skins are then ready to be dyed. 

 Each dresser and dyer of skins has his own process and formulae for 

 mixing dyes, but the method of applying the dye is largely the same. 

 The most successful dye for sealskins is a vegetable dye, the base of 

 which is logwood and galls (Note — Galls are an excresence on plants 



