Evening journal., 1904-06-29
flsHsKlN LEATHER.
II II Made In Great variety and n
or Excellent Quality,

~ ~ Made IN ttrcnt fnrirtt ana -
or Excellent quality,
A great deal OF good leather comes
ont OF the sea-not the Kind Of leather
that comes from the bacHs OF walrus.
seal and otter. Everybody knows
about that There Is n qupprer 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 angclhsh. This Is a kind Of
shark a shark with thick, winglike
fins that have earned for him the name
of angel though he does not look biz
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 a North sea shark known as the
diamond shark. German leather man
ufacturers have tried TO produce q
leather from animal hides tAat shall
Bupplant the skin, but in vain. Unlike
animal leather, fish leather is abso-
lutely impervlous to water and never
gets soggy from dampnessi therefore il
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 n valuable and attrac-
tive leather When the bony plates are
taken or their pattern remains on the
skin, just as the pattern Of alligator
scales remains on alligator leather The
Pacific coast sturgeon and the stur-
geon OF the great lakes produce a
tough leather betting that Is used TO
make laces for joining leather betting
for machinery, and the laces often out
wear the betting.
Tho strange garlsh, an American
fresh water fish. with long, toothed
jaws like those Of the crocodile, has a
skin that can be polished smooth until
# has finish Ike ivory. 1t makes
beautiful jewel caskets and picture
! frames. The skin of the garfish used
to be converted into ormor by some
tribes of American sayages. The hide
is 80 tough and hard that it makes a
breastplate that can turn a knife or
spear. Some Of the finer specimens
that have been found are hard enough
to turn even a blow from tomahawk.
The savages who wore this fish
nrmor also used so wear a fish helmet
II was made from the skin of the
prickly porcuplne fish, and besides pro-
tectlng the wearcrs head It was used
as weapon Of offense The warriors
butted their enemies with it, and as
It had hundreds of ironlike pixies the
operation was eminently painful to the
object OF attack.
In Gloucester the king town" Of
fish. the humble cod las been utilized
with success for making leather for
shoes and gloves. In Egypt men walk
on sandals made from the skins of Red
sea fish, I'm Russia certain peasant
costumes are beautifully trimmed with
the skins OF fine food fish, the tur-
bot Bookblndcrs bind books with eel
skin The eolskn serves another and
less pleasant purpose II is braided
into Whips The writer was The nn-
happy member cf European private
school where enc Of these celssin
whips was n prominent instrrm,nt Of
discipline, and lie has never cared for
ecls since then.
Along the big salmon rivers Of 81
IBERIA the natives often wear brilliant
leather garments dyed rcd and yellow.
They are made from salmon skins In
Alaska beautiful waterproof bags are
made from all sorts of fshsklns.
The queerest use Is that TO which the
intesunes Of the sea lion are put. Trey
are slit and stitched together to form
hooded coats. which are superior to
india rubber as waterproof garments.
Walrus mtestines are mnde into sails
for boats by the Eskimos of north
western America Canadian Harness
and Carriage journal.