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.
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