Lexington gazette. [volume] (Lexington, Va.) 1871-1962, 1904-08-03
FISHSKIN LEATHER.
IL In Made In Great Variety and In
of Excellent Gunllty.

Ii La Made In Great Variety and ID
of Excellent Quality.
A great deal of good leather comes
out of the sea-not the kind of leather
that comes from the backs Of walrus,
seal and otter. Everybody knows
about that. There is a queerer leather
which comes from the bodies Of fish.
An extremely fine quality of green
leather made in Turkey Is manufac-
tured from the skin Of an ugly fish
called the angelfish. This is a kind Of
shark-a shark with thick. winglike
fms that have earned for him the name
or angel, though he does not look bit
like an angel, but rather the opposite.
The sword grips of the officers Of the
German army are made from shark
leather too. They are beautiful In
pattern. being marked with dark dia-
mond shaped figures. This skin comes
from Il North sea shark known as the
diamond shark. German leather man
ufacturers have tried to produce a
leather from animal hides that shall
supplant the skin, but in vain. Unlike
animal leather, fish leather is abso.
lutely imperviOus to water and never
gets soggy from dampness therefore it
Is ideal for sword grips, as, no matter
how much the hand may perspire, the
grip remains hard and dry.
The Sturgeon. despite his lumpy ar
NOR, furnishes Il valuable and attrac-
tive leather When the bony plates are
taken off. their pattern remains OH the
skin, just rs the pattern of alligator
scales remains OH alligator leather. The
Pacific coast sturgeon and the stur-
geon OF the great lakes produce
tough leather betting that Is used to
make laces for joining leather betting
for machinery, and the laces often out
wear the betting.
The strange gartish, an American
fresh water fish. with long. toothed
jaws like those Of the crocodile, has
skin that can be polished smooth until
It has finish like ivory. 1t makes
beautiful jewel Baskets and picture
frames. The skin of the garlish used
to be converted into armor by some
tribes of American savages. The hide |
IS so tough and hard that ii makes |
that can turn knife or |
spear. Some OF the finer specimens |
hat have been found are hard enough |
o turn even blow from tomahawk.
The savages who wore this fish
lrmor also used TO wear fish helmet.
t was made from the skin of the
,rickly porcuplne fish. and besides pro-
Getting the wcarcr's head 1t was used
IS weapon Of Offcnsc. The warriors
,utted their enemies with it, and as
had hundreds of ronlikc pixies the
peration was eminently painful to the
bject Of attack
In Gloucester. the king town" of
sh, the humble cod has been utilized
With success for making leather for
hoes and gloves. In Egypt men walk
n sandals made from the skins of Red
ea fish. In Russia certain peasant
ostumes are beautifully trimmed with
he skins of Il fine food fish, the tur-
OF. Bookbnders bind books with eel
kin. The eelskin serves another and
,Ss pleasant purpose. 1t is braided .
ITO whips. The writer was the I'M
Apply member Of n European private
choo where one of these eelskin
hips was II prominent instrument Of
lscipline, and he has never cared for
nls since then.
Along the big salmon rivers OF ST.
erin the natives often wear brilliant
ather garments dyed red and yellow.
hey are made from salmon skins. In
laska beautiful waterproof bags are
ade from all sorts of flshskins.
The quecrest use Is that to which the
testines of the sea lion are put. They
e slit and stitched together to form
)oded coats, which are superior to
da rubber as waterproof garments.
'alrus intestines are made into sails
r boats by the Eskimos of north
estern America.-Canadlan Harness
III Carriarp Journal