ired to make a robe are as follows:

Raccoon 12 to 20
Coyote, wolf or dog 6 to 10
Wild cat 12 to 16
Woodchuck or opossum 20 to 30
Goat 4 to 8

Baby carriage robes of angora or lamb skins are lined with quilted satin
and trimmed with felt of some light shade. They usually have either an
opening for the head and shoulders or a pocket for the feet.

[Illustration: COYOTE LAP ROBE, 8 SKINS.

Note tails in center.]

The natives of Patagonia make up many robes of the guanaco and vicuna,
dressing the skins and sewing them together with sinew. Their dressing
is faulty as the skins are apt to stiffen and crack and the sinew
hardens with time until it becomes like wire, though the stitching is
wonderfully even. They have, however, worked out a scheme of joining the
skins in a way to eliminate waste, that is far ahead of civilized fur
workers. A row of skins are joined head to tail and the next row headed
the opposite way will fit in perfectly, the legs being left on the
skins. The sketch with this will explain better than any description.
The guanaco pelt being of a woolly nature makes it unnecessary to run it
all the same way and the entire skins are utilized in spite of their
ungainly shape, the flaps and tabs trimmed off filling the indentations
around the outer edge of the robe. They make an excellent camp blanket
as light and warm as the malodorous, hairy rabbit skin robe of Hudsons
Bay, and no Patagonian ranch house bed is complete without its guanaco
coverlet.

You will likely be called on to repair robes much oftener than to make
them and such work is nearly all profit, as it generally consists in
sewing up rips and tears in the skins. Never attempt to do this from the
front or fur side as it can only be done right from the back. To do this
at least one side of the lining will have to be ripped and the robe
turned, turning it back and resewing it on completion. Linings are
turned under at the edges all around.

[Illustration: PATAGONIAN ROBE OF GUANACO SKINS.]

Worn and soiled linings and trimming often need replacing with new
material and it is sometimes necessary to purchase an unlined goat
"plate" to repair robes of that common variety. Worn robes can be cut
down in size if no similar material is to be had for repairs.

CHAPTER XIV.

MOUNTING ENTIRE SMALL FUR ANIMALS.

In Chapters VI and VIII directions