Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/238

226 dandy. He owned, among other fine clothes, two very "swell" frocks, one made wholly of ermine-skins put together in stripes of brown summer skins and white winter skins alternately, with the tails and feet dangling, and another of blue and white fox-skins put together in alternate stripes.

The every-day frock has very little trimming except a fringe of wolverine fur around the wrist, and a strip of long-haired wolf-skin round the edge of the hood, so that, when the hood is drawn up over the head, the long hair stands out all round the face like a halo. This is not merely an ornament, but also serves to protect the face against the wind. Working frocks are often without even this frill. Full-dress jackets are often very prettily trimmed with edging made of alternate strips of light and dark skins, fringed with wolverine fur, and often ornamented with little knots of red worsted.

The breeches are usually made of heavier deer-skin than the frock, so that only one pair is more often worn than a single frock, and then with the hair inside. Full-dress breeches are tastefully trimmed with edging like the jacket. The boots and the women's pantaloons, as I have said, are generally made of the skin of the deer's legs, and it is the fashion to have the white patch from the inside of the deer's leg always on the outside of the ankle. A specially fashionable style of boot has the leg made of alternate stripes of white and brown skin, with a very pretty effect. Women's pantaloons also are often made this way below the knee.

Eskimo dandies, instead of having their boots kept up by the draw-strings of their breeches, have the tops finished off with a fancy edging, and kept up by draw-strings of their own. To keep the moccasin-like sole of the boot from getting out of shape and running over on one side, there is a pair of strings fastened to the edge of the sole near the heel, crossed over the instep, and tied round the ankle.

There are several kinds of material used for making boot-soles, and each is supposed to be specially suited for some particular purpose. For walking on dry snow, the best boot-soles are made of sealskin which has been rolled up and allowed to "heat" and ferment a little before drying, so that the epidermis can be scraped off with the hair. This looks like cream-colored morocco and will not stand the least wetting. For walking on the rough sea-ice they prefer to have soles made of sealskin dressed with the hair on, and worn with the flesh-side out; but for their water-proof boots they use the thicker skin of the great bearded seal, or, if they can get it, of the white whale, dressed with oil. Sometimes the skin of the polar bear is made into water-proof soles. The white whale skin is the best material. It makes a translucent,