PHOTOGRAPHY AND PRESERVING 



have heard from a good many sportsmen that in the be- 

 ginning ninety per cent of their negatives were under- 

 exposed until they got accustomed to judge more accu- 

 rately the intensity of the light. Nowadays anything in 

 the way of developing papers, hypo, and other chemicals 

 of fairly good quality are obtainable in Nairobi at a 

 slightly advanced price. 



Another very important feature of the sportsman's life 

 in the jungle is the skillful preserving of his trophies. A 

 great many skins which sportsmen have taken home from 

 different parts of the world are so badly taken off and so 

 poorly cured that I have heard taxidermists, like the cele- 

 brated Roland Ward in Piccadilly, London, say that they 

 very often had to piece the skins out with parts of other 

 skins. The sportsman who goes out to Africa without the 

 slightest knowledge of taxidermy will probably experience 

 that a high percentage of the trophies he brings home have 

 been spoiled by careless handling by the native gun bear- 

 ers. These men, although most of them know perfectly 

 well how to prepare the trophy, at least so that it will not 

 spoil in shipment, are so lazy that they will not, as a rule, 

 take the trouble to do this properly, unless " Bwana 

 mkubwa " is able to show them how to do it or else closely 

 watches their work. 



These men, unless differently instructed, will invari- 

 ably cut up the head and neck skin on the throat side, and 

 thus spoil the trophy entirely both for the private collection 

 and the museum. The proper way is to cut it up all along 

 the back of the neck. If the animals are to be mounted 

 whole or in part, or are to be given away to museums, it is 



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