274 THE. SNAKES OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
identify your specimen, take or send it to the nearest museum, 
and ask for information. The best plan is to collect two specimens. 
Keep one for yourself, and send the other to a museum as a 
donation, and ask the museum officials to let you know its name. 
If they cannot identify it themselves, they will send it to some 
authority on snakes, who will be able to tell them. 
First of all, learn to recognize the three great divisions—the 
solid-toothed, harmless snakes, the intermediate, back-fanged 
snakes, and the typically, venomous, front-fanged snakes. 
In the preservation of snakes, a wood-spirit known as formalin 
is frequently used. It is sold by all chemists. It has the advan- 
tage of being quite colourless, and it does not dissolve out the 
colouring matter of the specimen to the same extent as does 
alcohol. However, it often partly dissolves the bones of the 
specimen, making it useless for dissection at any future time. I 
have kept various reptiles in formalin for fifteen years, and they 
are to-day as fresh as ever. The exposed fangs of the snakes, 
however, crumbled away when touched. The lime-dissolving 
power of formalin can be neutralized by reducing its acidity, viz. by 
adding a little colourless solution of lime (lime-water), and keeping 
the specimens in a feeble light. The less light which reaches the 
specimens the better, as light bleaches them. The collection 
may be kept in a dark cupboard or on a shelf in a feeble light, 
or with a curtain on rings hanging in front. Formalin, if used, 
should be diluted. For the preservation of snakes, add ten 
to fifteen parts of water to one of formalin. It can be diluted 
to a greater extent if the specimen has had a preparatory soaking 
for a few days, as mentioned above. , 
To skin a snake with the intention of stuffing it, the best plan 
is to turn it inside out by removing the skin from around the lips, 
working it down to the neck, and slowly drawing it off. Then 
dust it over with a preservative mixture consisting of one-third 
white arsenic and two-thirds burnt powdered alum, and carefully 
turn the skin right side out again. Fill the body with fine saw- 
dust to the proper dimensions, insert a piece of putty into the 
neck, and replace the skull, after winding a little cotton wool on 
it to replace the muscles and glands which have been removed. 
Putty or modelling clay. is, however, better than cotton wool. 
Fasten the lips with tiny pins or a few stitches, as naturally as 
possible. Put in a pair of artificial eyes, mould the body into its 
