Hides are used chiefly for coverings, but also in some parts strips are used for the purposes of suspension. The hides are those of horses and neat cattle. For covering they are converted into leather by the action of oak and other bark. They are afterwards smoothed and levelled by the currier, and sometimes split into two equal thicknesses by machinery. They are then rendered pliable by the action of oil and tallow, and finished to a clear black or brown colour as may be required. This is called dressed leather. For some purposes the hides are merely levelled, put on wet to the object they are intended to cover, and left to shrink and dry. Others are covered with a coat of elastic japan, which gives them a highly glazed surface, impermeable to water; in this state they are called patent leather. In a more perfectly elastic mode of japanning, which will permit folding without cracking the surface, they are called enamelled leather. They are generally black, but any colour desired may be given to them. All this japanned leather has the japan annealed, somewhat in the same mode as glass. The hides are laid between blankets, and are subjected to the heat of an oven raised to the proper temperature during several hours. The skins used are those of the sheep and goat. The former are converted into leather by the action of oak bark. In one form of dressing them they are known as basil leather, which is of a light brown colour and very soft. Sometimes they are blacked, and occasionally japanned like the hides. In all these forms sheep skins are only used for inferior purposes, as mere coverings, where no strength is required. Goat skins are used in the preparation of the leather known as “Spanish” and “Morocco.” They are not tanned in oak bark like other leather, but very slightly in the bark of the sumach-tree. They pass through many processes previous to that of dyeing, for which purpose they are sewn up with the grain outwards and blown out like a bladder. This is to prevent the dye from getting access to the flesh side. This beautiful leather was originally manufactured by the Moors, who afterwards introduced the process into Spain, by which means it came to be known under two names. The English have greatly improved on the manufacture, so much so that few others can vie with it. These skins are used for the inside linings of carriages. Hair is used as an article of stuffing. To give it the peculiar curl which renders it elastic, it is forcibly twisted up in small locks, and in that state baked in an oven to fix it. Horse-hair is the best, being the strongest and longest; but various other kinds are used. Sometimes it is adulterated with fibres of whalebone. Doe-hair is also much used as an article for stuffing, but as it is very short it cannot be curled, and there is not much elasticity in it.