PRELIMINARY WORK IN MOUNTING MAMMALS. 103 



thinned down it will become quite soft, and even elastic. This 

 is hard work, it starts the perspiration and keeps it going 1 , but 

 it will conquer the hardest skin that ever was made. 



To make a skin sufficiently elastic to mount, it must be 

 turned wrong 1 side out and scraped all over thoroughly with a 

 skin-scraper, from nose to tip of tail, and phalanges. Small 

 skins yield far more readily and kindly than the larger ones. 

 The skins that are hardest, horniest, and most refractory ;in> 

 those of the capybara, all of the Sin'd<v (hogs), and tropical deer. 

 I have mounted skins of these that when first softened were 

 precisely like horn, and at best with such subjects the result- 

 ing specimens are only " passable." 



Sometimes when the scraper can make no impression, it be- 



FIG. 24. Skin-Scrapers, about onc-fourLh actual size. 



comes necessary to laboriously pare down the inside of an en- 

 tire skin with the knife before scraping it. This is tedious, 

 1 nit effective, for a sharp knife leaves no room for argument. 



All skins larger than a gray wolf, whether they be fresh or 

 dry, need to be stretched on a beam, and pared down with a 

 sharp draw-shave that has adjustable handles. This useful in- 

 strument can be bought at any large hardware store for $1.25. 

 Keep it thoroughly sharp. The beam should be about seven 

 feet in length, and six by thr;-" inches in size, and laid flat. 

 ( )UH end of it is to be bolted firmly down to your bench by two 

 movable iron bolts, and the half which projects beyond the 

 edge of the table must have both of its upper edges rounded off 

 so that it will represent half a cylinder with the convexity up- 

 permost. The table itself must be fastened securely in plac .-. 

 Throw the skin over the rounded end of this beam, drive a 

 stout " scratch-awl " through it, just beyond the reach of your 



