THE SEA-OTTER 
283 
“ stake out ” the skins. The white hunters, when 
surf-hunting or hunting in boats from the shore, 
ripped their otters in the same way, staking them 
out on the ground, using wooden pegs. 
Native hunters always skin their otters “ on the 
round ”—that is, a cut is made along the inner edge 
of the flippers through the anus and down the tail, 
and the skin is taken off by turning it back inside 
out over the head. It is stretched on pieces of 
board, which are put inside and tightly wedged ; the 
adherent fat, etc., is then cut off, and the skin scraped 
and dried, after which the fur side is turned outwards. 
A full-grown skin treated in this way will measure 
6 feet 6 inches to 7 feet from nose to tip of tail, 
with a girth of 20 to 22 inches at the shoulders, and 
28 to 30 inches near the hind-quarters. The tail 
will measure about 12 by 4 inches. 
There is quite an art in ripping, skinning, and 
staking out an otter-skin on the frame, as practised 
by “ white hunters.” On board an otter-hunting 
vessel, where the captain takes a pride in having 
his skins look well, one man will do all the “ ripping,” 
as it is called. This insures the skins all “ staking 
out ” in the same shape. After the ripping is done, 
the skin is taken off the body, a line then rove through 
the eyeholes, dipped overboard, and every particle 
of blood thoroughly washed off. A frame of suitable 
size is then made of boards. 
Before staking out the skin, the head and tail 
are “ leaned ”—that is, the adherent fat, etc., is cut 
off down to the true skin. The reason for doing 
these parts before staking out is that the area to be 
“ leaned ” is so small that it could not be done 
properly after the “ staking out ” nails had been 
