FUR FACTS 221 



due to insects puncturing the surface of the bark or leaf and depositing 

 its egg in the cavity. The subsequent growth, constituting the gall, 

 is the effect either of some virus deposited with the egg, or of the 

 irritation caused by the larva, which lives in the gall until its develop- 

 ment into an insect. The gall of commerce is the product of a gall- 

 fly, which lays its eggs in the soft twigs of an oak tree of western 

 Asia and southern Europe. The gall used in the manufacture of dye- 

 for seal skins is largely the Aleppo gall. Aleppo is a district in Tur- 

 key. Logwood is from the logwood tree which is found in Jamaica, 

 the wood of this tree containing the crystalline principle hematoxylin 

 which is used for dye stuffs.) 



The finished article requires fifteen or twenty applications of dye, 

 each application must be dried, and the work done by skilled men. 

 The result is that the skins, which in their natural state have a 

 silvery grey unattractive color, are turned out a beautiful lustrous 

 glossy black. It looks black in most lights, but there is a brownish 

 sheen to it. The pelt of the seal is rather thick and heavy. To 

 make it more supple and to reduce the weight the pelt side of the 

 dyed skins are sandpapered down as thin as possible, this not only 

 thins the pelt but removes the dyed leather leaving the pelt side white 

 like the inside of a white kid glove. The seal herd is the property of 

 the United States Government, and the Government has recently 

 taken over the supervision of the killing and taking of the pelts, as 

 well as the utilizing of the carcasses for their by-products. 



