64 JAPAN LEATHER. 



then set for ever. I conjecture this, not because we have any hint in the 

 Book of Revelation that the sun will cease to burn, but by reason of the 

 statement therein given, that a time is approaching when the blessed will 

 need no light of the sun nor of the moon, but the visible glory of Creative 

 Power will shine with Divine effulgence on all around. 

 (To bo continued.) 



JAPAN LEATHER. 



BY M. C. COOKE, P.S.8. 



Having met with a material new to commerce offered for sale under 

 the name of Japanese Leather, I at once ventured an opinion that it was 

 not of animal, but of vegetable origin ; not leather, but paper, or a paper- 

 like substance saturated with some resinous fluid and rendered waterproof. 

 The small specimen which I was able to obtain, scarcely more than an 

 inch square, I digested for some hours in alcohol, which had the effect of 

 extracting nruch of the extraneous matter employed in the preparation. 

 The fabric then remaining was abnost undistinguishable from the beaten 

 liber of the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyri/era) or the Tape" cloth of the 

 South Sea Islands, except that it was still rather more compact, the fibrous 

 tissue being held together by the remains of the preparation not removed 

 by the alcohol. I afterwards boiled my miniature specimen in a strong 

 alkaline solution, which had the effect of loosening the fibres, so that I 

 could submit them to microscopical examination; the result being to 

 strengthen my conviction that the base of this new material is a thin kind 

 of bark cloth, similar to that manufactured in Tahiti and the surrounding 

 islands ; and it is exceedingly probable that it is obtained in Japan from 

 the liber of the paper mulberry, the morocco pattern being given to the 

 cloth by graining or in the beating, in the same manner that parallel 

 ridges are formed on the Tap£ cloth of the South Seas. There is even a 

 possibility that this substance also is only a paper made of a very long 

 fibrous stuff, such as the bark already alluded to, which is a common paper 

 material in Japan. What are the adjuncts employed for saturating, colour- 

 ing, and finishing the Japanese leather, had no consideration in my present 

 examination, it being directed mainly to the basis itself. The result of 

 this investigation will cause no surprise to those who remember the count- 

 less uses which the Japanese make of paper, of which this is but a variety, 

 and the ingenuity with which they waterproof it so successfully that it is 

 made into umbrellas and coats quite as impervious to wet as a macintosh, 

 and very inexpensive. The Japanese leather is imported in sheets mea- 

 suring about 19 by 13 inches, exceedingly like morocco leather on the face, 

 and in various colours. Some sheets are embossed with more fanciful 

 patterns. It is really a soft, tough, and apparently durable substance ; 

 although, from the novelty of its character, the price demanded, and the 

 small size of the sheets, it has not at present met with a ready sale. 



