Tanning Hides.--Steep them in a strong solution of alum and a little salt, for a period dependent on the thickness of the hide. The gradual change of the hide into tanned leather is visible, and should be watched. If desired, thehair may be removed before the operation, as described in "Parchment;" kid gloves are made of leather that has been prepared in this way.
Greasing Leather.--All leather articles should be occasionally well rubbed with fat, when used in hot, dry climates, or when they are often wetted and dried again: it makes a difference of many hundred per cent. in their wear. It is a great desideratum to be possessed of a supply of fat, but it is not easy to obtain it from antelopes and other sinewy game. The French troops adopt the following method, which Lord Lucan copied from them, when in the Crimea:--the marrowbones of the slaughtered animals are broken between stones; they are then well boiled, and the broth is skimmed when cold.
To preserve Hides in a dried State.--After the hide has been flayed from a beast, if it is not intended to "dress" it, it should be pegged out in the sun. If it be also rubbed over with wood-ashes, or better still with salt, it will keep longer. Most small furs that reach the hands of English furriers have been merely sun-dried; but large hides are usually salted, before being shipped for Europe to be tanned. A hide that has been salted is injured for dressing by the hand, but it is not entirely spoiled: and therefore the following extract from Mr. Dana's 'Two Years before the Mast' may be of service to travellers who have shot many head of game in one place, or to those who have lost a herd of goats by distemper.
Salting Hides.--"The first thing is to put the hides to soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, and making them fast in small piles by ropes, and letting the tide come up and cover them. Every day we put 25 in soak for each man, which with us make 150. There they lie 48 hours, when they are taken out and rolled up in wheelbarrows, and thrown into vats. These vats contain brine made very strong, being sea-water with great quantities of salt thrown in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie 48 hours: the use of the sea-water into which they are first put being merely to soften and clean them.
"From these vats they are taken to lie on a platform 24 hours, and are then spread upon the ground and carefully stretched and staked out, so that they may dry smooth. After they were staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives, and carefully cut of all the bad parts: the pieces of meat and fat, which would otherwise corrupt and affect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts that prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything necessary, and not to cut or injure the hides. It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean 150; most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle. Then, too, as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the back-ache. The first day I was so slow and awkward that I only cleaned eight; at the end of a few days I doubled my number, and in a fortnight or three weeks could keep up with the others, and clean my proportion--twenty-five."
CORD, STRING, THREAD.
General Remarks.--I have spoken of the strength of different cords in "Alpine outfit," p. 48. All kinds of cord become exceedingly rotten in hot, dry countries: the fishermen of the Cape preserve their nets by steeping them occasionally in blood. Thread and twine should be waxed before using them for sewing, whenever there is reason to doubt their durability.
Substitutes.--The substitutes for thread, string, and cord, are as follows:--Thongs cut spirally, like a watch-spring, out of a piece of leather or hide, and made pliant by working them round a stick; sinew and catgut (pp. 346); inner bark of trees--this is easily separated by long steeping in water, but chewing it is better; roots of trees, as the spruce-fir, split to the proper size; woodbines, runners, or pliant twigs, twisted together. Some seaweeds--the only English one of which I have heard is the common olive-green weed called Chorda Filum; it looks like a whip-thong, and sometimes grows to a length of thirty or forty feet; when half-dried, the skin is taken off and twisted into fishing-lines, etc. Hay-bands; horsehair ropes, or even a few twisted hairs from the tail of a horse; the stems of numerous plants afford fibres that are more or less effective substitutes for hemp, those that are used by the natives of the country visited should be notices; "Indian grass" is an animal substance attached to the ovaries of small sharks and some other fish of the same class.
In lashing things together with twigs, hay-bands, and the like, the way of securing the loose ends is not by means of a knot, which usually causes them to break, but by twisting the ends together until they "kink." All faggots and trusses are secured in this way.