748 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



tages over other methods wherever quahty is of prime 

 importance, and in most regions where drying cannot 

 be resorted to. Salt leaves the skin in all its original 

 pliability and strength, and is quickly removed by water. 

 It performs the work of preservation with the minimum of 

 danger either to the quality of the skin or to the coloration. 

 The method which has been found most successful in equa- 

 torial Africa in the preservation of the skins of large mam- 

 mals concerns itself with the use of salt exclusively. All skins 

 contain a large per cent of water, which combines with the 

 other elements in the tissues after death to assist decay. 

 In order to preserve the skin it is necessary speedily to ex- 

 tract the moisture which the skin contains. Salt when ap- 

 plied in a pulverized condition to the dermal side of skins 

 acts at once upon the moisture in the skin, with which it 

 unites. Its extreme solubility when in the presence of 

 moisture allows it to penetrate into the skin through the 

 pores and unite with the moisture in every part of the tissues. 

 Salt has no other preservative effect, however, than drying; 

 that is, it is not an insecticide or a poison to bacteria or 

 other organisms which destroy skins. It must also be borne 

 in mind that it is far from stable in its preservative qualities. 

 As long as salt is in the skin moisture other than salt brine 

 must be kept away, for there is constant danger of the salt 

 being extracted by outside moisture, which may thus find 

 entrance into the skin and cause its decay just as would 

 have taken place originally had not the salt been present 

 to extract the moisture and preserve the skin. The suc- 

 cessful use of salt in preservation depends first upon apply- 

 ing it to every part of the skin, and second in making its 

 action universal throughout. In the case of large skins 



