Bricks from Southport kilns may be seen in Charlottetown in the old Prowse Bros, building, the Masonic Temple, Trinity United Church and Ci¬ ty Hall. And it was said many years ago that the streets in Boston were lined with bricks from the Flood and Cardiff kilns in Southport . The Tannery v i ....."i—"iTTrniiiii'rr'^'^'TfT^F^iniififiiiMrfiriiiiiii'iriiiiii'irikMiiirtii Southport residence of J.W. Stewart , Tanner, as seen in Meacham's Atlas. My father, John W. Stewart owned and operated a tannery in Southport village in the middle eighteen hundreds. He bought raw hides from the farmers and dressed them into leather. John W. Rendle , an English tanner, taught him this trade and sold him the tannery. The tanning operation re¬ quired many weeks of laborious work. Upon receiving a hide the first thing the tanner did was mark it with the owner's initials, then wash and soak it several times until well softened. Next he placed the hide in a pit containing a solution of lime for two or three days, stirring often. Then it was remov¬ ed, stacked in a pile with the other hides to drain, later to be returned to the liming pit. This process went on for several weeks or until loosened hairs could be easily scraped off. Using a dehairing knife which was about two feet long with two handles and a sharp curved lower edge, he scraped the hide clean, using water to rinse. Next it was put for some time into another soaking solution to remove any lime that had worked into the skin and to make it even softer. At last it was cured and ready for the tanning pit. Tannin or tannic acid can be extracted as a yellowish powder from the bark of certain trees such as hemlock. Large rolls or sheets of hemlock bark four feet long were shipped by boat from Pinette and used in this process. They were put through a mill, ground into small pieces and then put in a 17