Popular science monthly . The inflated goat skins are used by the na-tives either as Hfe-buoys or as river-horses THIS is not, as might be sup-posed, a photograph of a?man with his performingseal climbing over hishoulder, but onl\- apicture of a Kashmiriwith his goatski iiswimming-skin. The skin to heused for this pur-pose is taken offwith as little (lil-ting as [Kjssible, al-ter which the hairis removed and thehide softly tannedby hoursof patientscraping. Then thefeet and neck open-ings arc coatedwith pitch—treebalsam is iisid inthe Himalayas and. asphaltum in Mesopotamia—and sewnup so closel
Popular science monthly . The inflated goat skins are used by the na-tives either as Hfe-buoys or as river-horses THIS is not, as might be sup-posed, a photograph of a?man with his performingseal climbing over hishoulder, but onl\- apicture of a Kashmiriwith his goatski iiswimming-skin. The skin to heused for this pur-pose is taken offwith as little (lil-ting as [Kjssible, al-ter which the hairis removed and thehide softly tannedby hoursof patientscraping. Then thefeet and neck open-ings arc coatedwith pitch—treebalsam is iisid inthe Himalayas and. asphaltum in Mesopotamia—and sewnup so closely as to be impervious to thewater. A small hole—usually at thenose—is left for inflation, and this isafterwards closed by folding over andtying with a thong. The inflated skins are used in se\eralways, the simplest and most commonone being as a support for the body whilethe vigorously kicked legs propel itacross a river. In fairly smooth slow-flowing streams a paddle like the oneshown in the photograph is often em-ployed, the paddlcr in such instancesriding his buoy like a horse. In fordingthe swift mountain torrents that flowinto the upper Indus, a much smallerskin than that shown in the illustrationis employed. The swimmer sprawls overthis and uses both arms and legs as com-bination propellers, steering gear andbuffers against the ever imminent rocks. Where Beautiful Hair Is Not aCrowning Glory THE man in the accompanying pho-tograph, who is shown in his per-petual furs of human hair, is a strikingillustration of what medical scienc
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience, bookyear1872
