TREATMENT OF THE SKINS OF SMALL MAMMALS. 31 



it plenty of room at first. Move it up and down, and leave it as 

 much spread out and free from folds as possible. Remember 

 that the fluid must act upon the inside of the skin, for the epi- 

 dermis is often almost impervious to it. If you allow the skin 

 to lie upon itself in thick folds, stuck together on the inside, 

 those spots are liable to lose their hair in a most unaccountable 

 and aggravating way. If the skin is small and thin, the bath 

 soon does its work ; but if it is a large skin, move it up and 

 down, and all about, every day for the first two or three days. 

 By the end' of that time its preservation will be complete. 



Half -.Bailed Specimens. Very often a subject will be brought 

 to you in the flesh, several days old, green on the abdomen, and 

 the hair starting to slip off between the hind legs. If the hair 

 pulls out readily On various parts of the body and limbs, it is a 

 gone case ; but if it starts only a little on the lower part of the 

 abdomen, and is firm everywhere else, put some bath, with a lit- 

 tle extra alum in it, on the fire to get warm, snatch that skin off 

 in a hurry, and without stopping for any fancy touches whisk 

 it into the warm bath. The bath should not be so hot that you 

 cannot bear your hand in it. It will act like magic. Then you 

 can gradually finish your work on the skin, so as to keep it safe 

 from harm. Very often quick work, and a warm bath with 

 plenty of alum in it, will save a skin in fine, mountable shape, 

 when nothing else will. The alum acts as a powerful astrin- 

 gent, drawing together the fibres of the epidermis around the 

 root of each individual hair, and likewise binding together the 

 cutis and epidermis. 



Cleanliness. You will observe that as fresh skins are put into 

 a bath it gradually loses its strength, and it is also liable to be- 

 come, in time, so dirty with blood and grease that it must be 

 thrown away. Keep skins that are greasy (bear, seal, etc.) care- 

 fully by themselves, and never put the skin of a deer, cat, or any 

 animal with a fine coat in a greasy or dirty bath. If a bath is 

 clean, but of too low strength, make some extra strong bath, say 

 20, and add to it and bring it up to 15. Keep all your bath 

 receptacles tightly closed, or the liquid will evaporate very 

 rapidly. 



Text /'in/ flit- lidfji. If you have no salometer, and are not over- 

 particular, you can test your bath by tasting it ; but unless the 



