_Fish._--Although the skins of fish are chiefly gelatinous, and easily soluble in water, some are of a firm, strong texture, and of a useful character. Up to within a few years, however, their employment for practical purposes has been rather limited, and it is only comparatively recently that attention has been more generally directed to their utilisation on an extended scale. At a Maritime Exhibition held at the Westminster Aquarium in 1876, a Norway exhibitor showed a variety of tanned fish-skins, among which were:--Tanned whale-skins; upper leather, made from the white whale, the source of the so-called porpoise hide used for laces; skins of flatfish, prepared for gloves; skins of soles, tanned and dressed for purses; skins of thornbacks, prepared as a substitute for sandpaper; and skins of eels, dressed and dyed, suitable for braces, &c. Shoes have been made at Gloucester, Mass., from the skins of the cusk or torsk (_Brosmus vulgaris_), the use of which has been patented, and an industry is said to be carried on at Colborn, Canada, with the skins of species of siluroids for glove making. In Egypt, fish-skins from the Red Sea are used for soles of shoes. The skin of the losh or burbot (_Lota maculata_) is used by the people in many parts of Russia and Siberia to trim their dresses. It is also utilised by some of the Tartar tribes as material for their summer dresses, and the bags in which they pack their animal skins. The spiny and tuberculous skins of many sharks and allied fishes are largely employed, under various trade names, for polishing woods, and for covering boxes, cases, &c. From a certain portion of the skin of the angel shark (_Squalina angelus_) the Turks make the most beautiful sea-green watch cases. Turners, ebonists, and carpenters in Europe use the rough skin of the blue dog-fish (_Squalus glaucus_), like emery paper, for smoothing their work and preparing it for polishing. This shark-skin is also made into shagreen. That most used at present appears to be the skin of the ray (_Hypolophus sephen_), which is very common on the Malabar coast. The house of Giraudon, Paris, makes excellent use of them for morocco and _tabletterie_. At the recent Paris Exhibition this establishment exhibited numerous illustrations of the ornamental application of the prepared skin in large office-table inkstands, candlesticks, boxes and caskets, paper-knives, reticules, card-cases, photograph frames, bracelets, scent bottles, &c. The fish called _chat_ (_Squalus catulus_) at Marseilles is smaller than the angel fish, and furnishes a product known as _peau de rousette_. This skin is reddish, and without spots, and of a uniform grain, flat, and only used to make cases and other articles known as shagreen. _Peau de chien de mer_ is another name given to some species of _Squalus_. That found on the French coasts is known under the names of _chien marin_, _rousette tigrée_, &c. Turners, cabinet makers, and carpenters use the