30 



THE MUSKRAT. 



many times through an iron ring. It should be unfolded at intervals 

 and rerolled in another direction. This is continued until the entire 

 skin is soft and flexible. 



The following method was reconnnended by the late William Ham- 

 ilton Gibson : 



The skill should always be thoroughly cleaned m warm water and all fat 

 and superttuous flesh removed. It should then be immersed in a solution made 

 of the following ingredients: Five gallons of cold soft water, 5 quarts wheat 

 bran, 1 gill of salt, and 1 ounce of sulphuric acid. Allow the skin to soak in 

 the liquid for four or five hours. If the hides have been previously salted, the 

 salt should be excluded from the mixed solution. The skins are now ready 

 for the tanning liquor, which is made in the following way : Into 5 gallons of 

 warm soft water stir 1 peck of wheat bran and allow the mixture to stand in 

 a warm room until fermentation takes place. Then add 3 pints of salt and 

 stir until it is thoroughly dissolved. A pint of sulphuric acid should then be 

 poured in gradually, after which the liquor is ready. Immerse the skins and let 

 them soak for three or four hours. The process of fleshing follows. This con- 

 sists of laying the skin, fur side down, over a smooth beam and working over 

 the flesh side with a blunt fleshing tool. An old chopping knife or a tin candle- 

 stick forms an excellent substitute for the ordinary fleshing knife, and the 

 process of rubbing should be continued until the skin becomes dry, when it 

 will be found to be soft and pliable.'^ 



Dressing- for the Manufacturer. 



Many of the muskrat skins used by American manufacturers of 

 fur garments are now^ dressed in the United States. Formerly nearly 

 all Avere dressed in Europe and came back to the United States largely 

 as manufactured furs, dyed to imitate the pelts of other animals. 

 Great improvements in the 23rocess of dressing the skins have been 

 made in this country, as is shown by comparison of those dressed 

 here in the natural color with the plucked and dyed skins commonly 

 returned from abroad. Yet it must be confessed that the back strips 

 taken from winter and spring muskrats are made into garments that 

 very closely resemble those of fur seal. After the cased raw skins 

 are bought in London, many are split into back and belly strips, and 

 the backs, plucked and dyed a rich seal browm, are resold to fur 

 manufacturers at the Leipzig sales. 



The operation of dressing muskrat skins is rather complicated, and 

 to the uninitiated the various processes seem needlessl}^ numerous. 

 The following is abridged from an account written by Mr. Charles 

 H. Stevenson : ^ 



At the fur dresser's the skins are first dampened on the flesh side with salt 

 water and left all night to soften. The following morning they are placed in 



« Camp Life and the Tricks of Trapping, p. 227, 1881. 

 * Report of Commission of Fish and Fisheries for 1902, p. 315, 1904. 

 396 



