The raw skins are shipped chiefly from Newfoundland, where the industry of seal fishing is well organised and provides employment for about 6,000 men. The seal caught in the North Atlantic Ocean is hairy and quite distinct from the fur seal captured in the Arctic Ocean off Alaska. The skin of the hair seal is only suitable for making into leather, but there is a layer of fat underneath it which furnishes a valuable raw material for the manufacture of oils and soap. The skins are salted and shipped to America and England. They are easily distinguished from other kinds of commercial hides and skins by the oily appearance of the flesh side.
According to an American Consular Report, the results of the fishing during the season 1913 were satisfactory. The total number of seals captured was 272,965, which were valued at £98,800. The number of skins exported was 212,285, valued at £64,300, of which the United States of America bought 151,355, the United Kingdom 60,754, and Canada 176.
The porpoise, or sea hog, has a very useful hide which, when dressed, makes a tough leather suitable for laces. The hides of other cetaceous mammals, such as the whale and narwhal, are convertible into useful leather. The British "porpoise" laces are generally made from the skin of the white whale (beluga).
Defects of Raw Hides and Skins
A remarkable feature of the leather trade is the great waste due to the careless preparation of a large number of hides and skins. Naturally, owing to their greatly increased value in recent years, there has been a decided improvement, but much loss occurs every day from damage to hides which ought to be avoided. The chief faults are in flaying and curing, but there are other important defects due to natural causes.
Bad flaying may be due (1) to cutting holes in the hides or skins; (2) to "scoring" or "siding" (i.e., cutting into the hide without going completely through), this generally occurring in the flanks or sides which are the most difficult parts of the hide to remove from the carcase; and (3) to mis-shaping the hide, which ought to be left square.
Any or all of these defects may be found in a single hide. Despite the active work of several proprietors of hide markets and the tanners' federations the proportion of badly-flayed hides in England constitutes a serious loss, which, however, may not fall directly on either the butcher or the tanner, for the former may save in wages by employing an inexperienced slaughterman, while the tanner pays a reduced price for the hide.
The losses due to bad flaying and curing in the United Kingdom are mainly attributable to the butchers' preference to kill these beasts in their own back-yard rather than in a public abattoir. Many of these small private slaughterhouses ought to be condemned by the authorities; but very few people outside those immediately interested have taken the trouble to inspect a modern public abattoir where everything is provided to carry on the work expeditiously and hygienically. On the Continent, where the conservatism of traders is not permitted to interfere with the public welfare to such an extent as it is in England, public abattoirs have become quite a feature in many cities, and one of the principal results of the system has been a remarkable improvement in the preparation of raw hides and skins for the tanner. In fact, a mechanical method of flaying has been invented in Paris, and is used extensively at the public abattoirs, by which hides are removed from cattle without a single mark or scratch. The method is known as dépouille mécanique (mechanical flaying) and consists in forcibly removing, by means of a windlass worked by electric power, the portions of hide which adhere firmly to the carcase and which are found over the ribs, the buttocks, and the tail. The remaining part of the hide can be easily removed with the ordinary butchers' flaying knife or with a heavy hammer of special design. The apparatus required to carry out the mechanical method of flaying, beyond the fixtures in the abattoirs where the process is adopted, consist of two lengths of chain to hold the carcase firmly, two special hammers, and one pair of strong pincers; the cost of one set is about £4. Mr. Gaston Tainturier, of Paris, is the inventor of this system, which has added thousands of pounds to the incomes of Parisian butchers.
Figure 1 is from a photograph taken at the Islington (London) Abattoir, where a demonstration of the process was given by Mr. Tainturier in February, 1913.
Naturally, this method cannot be adopted in small slaughterhouses in back-yards, but is readily adaptable to public abattoirs, where practically all of the heavy work is done by electrical power. This exemplifies only one of several advantages of modern abattoirs over private slaughterhouses.