TRAPPING MOLES AND UTILIZING THEIR SKINS. 13 

 MATCHING SKINS. 



When matcliing skins in a piece the best appearance is produced 

 by arranging them so that the fur of no two adjacent skins strokes 

 in the same direction. 



The great bulk of the moleskins supplied to manufacturing furriers 

 in this country are dressed and dyed (''blended" or ''tipped") by 

 special processes involving the use of machinery. Most of this work 

 is done in a few establislmients in New York City, Brooklyn, and, 

 more recently, St. Louis. Tlie leather side of the pelt is commonly 

 dyed to prevent its light color from showing at the seams in a gar- 



FiG. 11.— Drying skins on a board, showing the three stages of work on one skin: (1) Four pins are first 

 used, one in each corner; (2) four intermediate pins are then inserted, the skin being sUghtly stretched; 

 (8) finally eight more pins are tacked in, one between each t\^o of those already in place. A light tack- 

 hammer will serve for driving the pins. 



ment or where the fur may chance to part. This process, it is 

 claimed, does not affect the color of the fur itself, which may be sub- 

 jected to another bath in a dye to secure a uniform shade in all the 

 skins. 



MOLESKIN GARMENTS. 



The best grades of skins are not always dyed and very pretty fur 

 pieces may be made up at home or by a local furrier without any 

 blending, provided one has skins enough from which to make satis- 

 factory selection. From a dozen to twenty skins of the common mole 

 of the northwest coast are sufficient to make an average-sized neck 

 piece for ladies' wear. Twenty skins will make a muff of average 

 size, and 30 skins a large one. At least double these numbers of 

 skins of eastern moles will be required for the same purposes. The 

 moleskin cloaks displayed in shop windows usually contain four to 

 six hundred pelts of the European mole, depending upon the length 

 of the garment. Not more than two-thirds as many skins of th^ 

 Townsend mole would be needed for such cloaks. 



