Seal skin

“ The seal-skin, used largely for levant work, is the skin of the yellow-hair seal, found in the Northern seas, the Baltic, Norway and Sweden, &c. The skin has a large, bold, brilliant grain, and being a large skin is much used for upholstery and coach work, like the Cape goat. ”

“ Seal-skin from the true seal has short, bristly hairs, and is used for trunk-covers, coats, caps, gloves, etc.; seal-skin from the eared seals is the soft, fine, glossy fur which the ladies prize so highly, and which has an important place in our luxurious winter wardrobes. These animals are carnivorous mammalia, and breathers of the air; while they hunt their food in the water, they must live out of it; hence they are found most frequently near the water, on the rocks of the coast, or floating on cakes of ice. ”

“ In winter there is nothing to compare to a seal skin; so much so that even an imitation is not to be despised. Velvets are ladylike, but they are expensive, and have not the durability of a seal skin. ”

“ If the seal-skins are to be used for kamiks (shoes) , the blubber and the inner layer of the skin itself is scraped away with a crooked knife (ulo) upon a board made for the purpose out of a whale’s shoulder-blade. When the skin has been scraped thin it is steeped for a day or so in stale urine until the hairs can be plucked off with a knife. This done, the skin is stretched, by means of small bone pegs, upon the earth or the snow, and dried. Then it is [129] rubbed until it is soft, and the process is complete. As this sort of skin has its outer membrane intact, it is of a dark colour. ”

“ Deer skin makes the finer kinds of morocco, while sheep and goat skin make the grades that are used in book-binding. Seal skin makes a superior kind of enamelled leather for boots, bags, dressing-cases, and ornamental articles. Hog skin is so full of oil that it resists the tannic acid, yet saddles are made from it, and it has other uses. ”

“ The finest quality of seal-skin in the eastern North American waters, which are devoid of fur seal, is that of the kos-se-gear, or fresh-water seal, which is found at or near the mouths of nearly all rivers emptying into the sea. ”

“ The animal famous for yielding the valuable fur, called seal-skin, is not a true seals but a kind of sea-lion with ears and more flexible limbs. The true seals have no external ears and their hind limbs are closely united together, being useless on land but very effective in water. The hind limbs of the sea-lions are separated, and are used by the animal when on land. All kinds of seals come on the land or on ice in great numbers during the breeding-season. The true seals vary from four to eight feet in length. Their fur is stiff, and they lack the woolly under fur of the fur-seals. ”

“ A well-known example is furnished by the fur-bearing seals, in which the outer fur is removed in the manufacture of commercial “seal-skin,” leaving only the soft and fine under-fur.
Remarkable differences in the direction or slope of the hair are noticeable on different parts of the body and limbs of many mammals, especially in certain apes, where the hair of the fore-limbs is inclined towards the elbow from above and from below. ”

“ In catching seals, and other amphibious animals, these people show great dexterity and ingenuity. Concealing themselves behind rocks, they decoy them by throwing a seal skin, blown out like a bladder, into the sea. ”

“ With, however, the exception of the pick of the Lobos Island seals the fur of the southern sea seals is very poor and only suitable for the cheapest market. Formerly many skins were obtained from New Zealand and Australia, but the importation is now small and the quality not good. The preparation of seal skin occupies a longer time than any other fur skin, but its fine rich effect when finished and its many properties of warmth and durability well repay it. Value 10s. ”

“ The skin is put in in such a manner that the head end is foremost. The stiff hairs in seal skins point toward the tail, except at the lower part of the neck and shoulders. These parts are at the sides of the head end of the skin, as the skin is split open at the under side. At these parts of the skin the hairs point outwardly and backwardly and are the most troublesome to cut or pluck, as they lie down close to the skin when it is drawn over the stretcher bar. ”

“ One method of catching seals illustrates their ingenuity. Taking an air-tight seal-skin, they blow it up like a bladder, fasten to it a long line, and, concealing themselves behind the rocks, they throw their imitation seal among the live ones and draw it slowly to the shore. ”

“ We had ocular demonstration the other day concerning a matter of which doubts have been expressed, namely, the skinning of their prey by seals. Not only do they skin their fish, but each shred of skin is greedily swallowed as soon as stripped. The skinning entails a good deal of trouble, as the fish is pushed away from the seal at every mouthful, and consequently sinks, so that a dive is necessary each time in order to resume operations. ”

“ The skin has now nothing to unite it to the body, and, consequently, may be drawn off with perfect ease. This scientific fact has been known for many years; the Greenlanders make constant use of it; when they have killed a seal or walrus, they distend the skin that they may tow the animal more easily ashore, and then remove its hide at a moment's notice. ”

“ In the case of seal and beaver skins the process is a much more difficult one, as the water or hard top hairs have to be removed by hand after the pelt has been carefully rendered moist and warm. With seal skins the process is longer than with any other fur preparation and the series of processes engage many specialists, each man being constantly kept upon one section of the work. ”

“ They are of no use to anybody, either for their skin or their flesh. Nothing could be more thoroughly disgusting and uncanny than they are, and yet nothing more fascinating. One can watch them—the irresponsible, formless lumps of intelligent flesh—for hours without tiring. I scarcely know what the fascination is. A small seal playing by himself near the shore, floating on and diving under the breakers, is not so very disagreeable, especially if he comes so near that you can see his pathetic eyes; but these brutes in this perpetual summer resort are disgustingly attractive. ”

“ The inhabitants are chiefly occupied in fishing and hunting, and in the manufacture of suitable clothing for the protection of the human frame against the winter cold. Reindeer, seal, and dog skins are deftly converted into hoods, jackets, trousers, and boots. The last-named are triumphs of ingenuity. They are made of seal-skin, which has been tanned by alternate freezing and thawing ”

“ I have been employed the whole of the day in skinning a young lion, and it is not yet finished. I am taking the skin off complete. It is the first seal I have skinned in this way, and I find it a very tedious job. I don't know any other animal that would be so difficult to skin. ”

“ The large ground seal (Phoca barbata) is skinned in a different manner. Its skin is very thick, thicker even than sole leather, and therefore extremely durable and suitable for all sorts of lines, particularly traces, lashings, and harpoon lines, and for soles, drinking 521 cups, and boat covers. This seal is very large, sometimes attaining a length of ten feet. The skin of the back and of the breast dries unequally, and therefore a piece covering the throat and breast is taken out before the rest is skinned, and the parts are dried separately. ”

“ We thought it was probably the sealskin and blubber of my morning’s seal, which we had let go adrift, owing to the sores the bear’s claws had left on it, making it dangerous for the hands engaged to skin it. Pusey finger we called the wounds in the Antarctic which we got from cutting up seals that had been torn by a grampus. Though colds are rare in Arctic regions, and consumption is said not to exist, yet often sores [210] take long to heal; cuts on the hands, for example, often take a long time to grow fresh skin. ”

“ We saw many seals swimming about among the kelp, and on the shore found the carcases of several which had lately been killed with clubs, each of the skulls having been fractured by a blow at the root of the nose. They were of the kind known here as the hair-seal, the skin of which is of little value. It is still very abundant ”

“ Probably, therefore it can catch fish in both. In regard to the female of the great seal, Dr. Edmondstone says, "The skin is of a paler colour, more or less patched with darkish blue, and becomes lighter with age. In two aged individuals, of different sexes, the one appears a pale grey, and the other black." There were no patches whatever on the skin of my bottle-nosed seal, as I first called it, but a uniform "pale grey" describes it pretty well. I have called it a uniform silver, and so, indeed, it looked; but pale grey and silver come pretty close to one another. ”

“ The blubber of the seal is either eaten, or converted into oil for the winter lamps; the skin, with the hair on, is made into frocks, breeches, boots, and stockings; and with the hair scraped off, and well oiled, the skin serves also for a covering to their houses and boats: numbers of them, heaped together with the skins of bears and deer, constitute their beds: lastly, after having carefully skinned a seal, the females sew the hide neatly up; then fill it with wind, like a bladder, and dry it in the sun ”

“ SEALS AND SEAL-SKINS
As it is as essential for those who wish to follow this story understandingly to know something of the fur-seal—its haunts, habits, and the methods of its capture—as it was to Phil Ryder, let us anticipate by a few hours the information that Serge is to give him, and learn a few of these things for ourselves.
Most of us have seen seals either in salt-water harbors or coast inlets, or at least in the tanks of zoölogical gardens; but the animals we have thus seen are hair-seals, which are so common as to be found in all the salt-waters of the world from poles to tropics. ”

“ First, under the skin is a layer of oily fat, which, while it reminds us of the fat accumulated by bears before they settle down to their winter’s sleep, has become in the seals a dense oily mass, acting like a thick blanket in keeping up the warmth of the body; and secondly, the seal, like its distant relations the bears, has a dense furry covering, and over this a number of coarse long hairs, which give it that shining oily look we notice in all308 seals. ”

“ In the early spring the women are busily engaged in making boots for summer wear. The skins of the seals have been prepared the fall before and stored away until wanted. The method of tanning the skins is the same for each species, differing only in its size and weight.
Certain large vessels made of wood or metal, chiefly the latter, as they are easily procured from the traders, are used to hold a liquid, which is from time to time added to. When a sufficient amount is collected it is allowed to ferment. During the interval the skin of the seal is cleansed from fat and flesh. ”

“ When the long and coarse hair of the seal is pulled off, a fine, short, silky, and somewhat fawn-coloured down is left, which in this country is a fashionable fur for ornamenting ladies' dresses. This fur woven with silk is also manufactured into shawls, which are of extremely soft and delicate texture. Seal skins, when tanned and properly dressed, are converted into a valuable leather for shoes and other uses. ”

“ He took the skin of a young seal, from which his mother had scraped off all the hairs, and tied up the holes made by the head and legs. Through a small tube fastened in the skin he could blow up his queerly shaped buoy to its fullest size.
Now the float was completed. Do you understand what help it would give? ”

“ If they were shot when in seal form, a tempest arose as soon as their blood was mingled with the water of the sea. A family living within recent times was believed to be descended from a human father and a mermaid mother, the man having captured his bride by stealing her seal’s skin. ”

“ At length, with a mighty yawn and stretch, he turns full upon his vasty stomach, and immediately, by virtue of the different appearance which his fur has when wet or dry, becomes a much smaller seal that « 326 » has climbed up upon a buoy—the lower, wet part of him looks like that; the upper, alone, is himself. Then gradually he soaks all over, till he is, again, huge and indivisible, a great, naked, blue, greasy, oiled bladder,—yet firm still, as though he grew to the rock. ”

“ The teeth differ in different genera, but in all are specially adapted for the seizure of fish and other slippery prey, though the seals are omnivorous in their habits, and will partake both of vegetable and animal food. There are either six or four incisors in the upper, and four or two in the lower jaw; the canines are invariably large and strong; and the molars, usually five or six on either side, in each jaw, are sharp-edged or conical, and bristle with points. The seal is fond of swallowing large stones ”

“ Experiments in the laboratory and in practice have shown that it is not the dissolving action on the skin substance in the narrow sense which is desired in bating the derm with dogs’ dung, but in order to prepare the hide for the manufacture of a soft and elastic leather, the albuminous intercellular substances and more particularly the layers of fat lying at the roots of the hair, in the corium and in many cases also on the epidermis, must be dissolved and thereby the fibrils of the skin loosened. ”