SEAL SKINS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 154, 14 April 1876, Page 14

SEAL SKINS.

When the seals have reached the killing-ground, they are allowed a certain time to rest and cool, after which about one hundred arc driven together into an enclosure, and the fittest are selected for slaughter. The others are alkwed to go down to the nearest water, whence they at once make their way back to the sea. The instrument of destruction is a long club of hard wood, with which the animals are struck a violent blow on the head. One is usually sufficient. A long, sharp knife is then thrust into the vitals, and the carcass laid aside ; and so on until about one thousand have been slain, when the work of skinning commences. When taken off, the skins are salted, and sent home in that condition. On arrival here, they are properly cured ; and then comes the preparation needed for their conversion into what is popularly called " sealskin." It is difficult to conceive how that beautiful article of dress can ever be manufactured out of the very unattractive object the skin presents at this juncture. It is hard and unyielding as a board, and the stiff, coarse hairs 'cover the fur so completely that its very existence might be unsuspected. In the trade a full-aged male is called a " wig " a female, " clap-match ;" males not quite so old, " bull ;" the half-grown of both sexes, " yearlings ;" the young of nearly a year old, "grey" or " silvered pups ;" and before their coats are changed to this shade, "black pups." The problem to be solved is how to separate the under-fur. For many years each individual hair was plucked o*it severally, at, of course, a vast expenditure of time and money, tmtil a lucky accident revealed to the dresser that the roots of the hair were more deeply seated than those of the fur. Now, therefore, after preliminary preparation, the skins are laid hair downward, upon a wooden block with a curved surface, and pared down with a knife until the roots of the hairs have been cut throngh, and the skin is very little thicker than a kid glove. All the coarser hair can then be brushed off with the hand, leaving- the fur, which is then seen to be arranged in small curls, of a light brown color, varying slightly in shade in the different parts. In consequence, nearly all " sealskin" is dyed before it is sold, and in the process of dyeing the curls untwist themselves, and the fur becomes smooth and ready for use. The profits made in dealing in furs must be worth having. The value of each skin that leaves the Prybilov Islands, now our main source of furs, is trifling. The G overnment of the United States imposes, it is true, a revenue tax of two dollars a skin, to which must be added the cost of maintenance of an establishment in so remote a spot ; but even after all allowances have been made for this and other expenses in Europe, the price demanded for a jacket must still be regarded as extravagant. — ' Contemporary Review.'