Skin Dressing and Meat Drying

C.W. Jefferys' notes about this picture from The Picture Gallery of Canadian History Volume 1

The beaming tool was so named because the skin to be dressed was laid over a smooth log or beam from which the bark had been stripped. The beam was placed in a sloping position, one end on the ground, and the other either braced against the abdomen of the worker, or the trunk of a small tree at the base of a low branch. The tool, gently pressed against the skin covered beam, was drawn downwards to scrape off the hair.