122 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



by one firm which handles about 2,000,000 skins annually. The work- 

 men and experts are largely German and other Europeans and have 

 received their training in the old world. The dressing and dyeing of 

 furs in America is steadily improving and the proportion shipped to 

 Europe is decreasing. 



The natural colours must be of a certain quality to 

 Natural Colours ^^ highly esteemed. Thus, pure white ermine is cost- 

 lier than the gray or yellowish-white kinds. With 

 white furs, it is the purest and, with black furs, it is the densest that 

 are most desired. A brownish colour in a silver fox is very objection- 

 able (although common in most districts), while a bluish cast is de- 

 cidedly to be preferred. In fact, it is almost axiomatic that a bluish 

 cast, instead of a rusty or brownish, is preferred. It is the brown cast 

 of Hudson Bay marten that makes it inferior to the Russian sable, 

 which often has a bluish-brown colour. The predominance on the mar- 

 ket of brown or rusty coloured skins can be readily accounted for when 

 it is remembered that most 'springy' skins are brownish, no matter how 

 blue-black, or blue-brown, or blue-gray they were when prime. 



. The modern art of dressing and dyeing furs is a great im- 



Furs provement on pioneer methods, especially in dyeing and 



finishing. For giving suppleness and durablity, the primi- 

 tive methods are excellent; thus, the North American Indians and 

 African Kaffirs are unrivalled dressers of leather. 



_j . The older method of dressing furs, used univei sally until the 



Methods introduction of machinery, is to "place the skins in a lye of 

 alkali; when the pelt has become soft, the skins are tubbed, 

 and then shaved by passing them over a large knife and placed in an 

 upright position; they are next buttered, and put in a large tub of saw- 

 dust by men half naked, who tread on them for some time, the heat 

 of their bodies rendering the leather soft and supple; they are then 

 beaten out and finished." 



Mode n Modern methods of dressing and dyeing are much different. 

 Methods The work is done in large factories where an expert handles 

 every department and machinery does most of the tramping 

 and beating. Invention has made possible the use of many commoner 

 and cheaper skins which undergo many operations in the course of 

 their preparation. They may be beamed, scraped, tramped, soaked, 

 fleshed, tanned, dried, drummed, greased, kicked, drummed with saw- 

 dust, dyed, caged, shaved, pared and foot-tubbed before they are ready 



