164 
Beaver seek protection from their enemy by 
recourse to their native element — water — and 
to aid them in escape nature has provided them 
with a powerful tail without the aid of which it 
would be impossible for them to dive under the 
surface with the rapidity that they do, but in- 
stinct teaches them that it is not merely suffi- 
cient to merely dive below the surface; they 
know that in order to be safe a certain depth 
must be reached and where the pond is shallow 
as is often the case, they excavate channels 
along the bottom from the dweilings to the 
dams, the mud from which goes to build the 
dams, 
In the old Hudson Bay Companie’s days, 
Oregon fairly swarmed with Beaver and 
throughout the state are large tracts of land now 
commanding a high price on account of their 
productiveness and are known as‘‘Beaver land”. 
Some of these tracts contain hundreds of acres 
and it fairly makes a person’s head swim to try 
and estimate how many Beaver it would take 
to clear and build dims to flood such an area. 
It is asserted by old residents that the site 
on which Portland now stands was once a Bea- 
ver pond, but this seems hardly probable for 
the beaver had a level head and nearly always 
finds a level piece of land on whieh to locate 
his town. 
BERNARD J. BRETHERTON, 
TAXIDERMY. 
A cyanide bottle for killing entomo’ogical 
specimens. is made by putting a small quantity 
of cyanide of potassium at the bottom of an 
open mouth jar or bottle and confining in place 
with a perforated paper disc. Any insect put 
in this bottle soon dies and should then be re- 
moved and pinned in position. Cyanide of 
potassium is a powerful poison and should not 
be inhaled by the operator. 
Glycerine from its antiseptic and preservative 
properties and freedom 
furnishes one of the best of agents for the 
preservation of fresh skins in a pliable state un- 
from evaporation 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
Take 
seven parts of giycerine and one part of water; 
til time can be taken to mount them. 
mix and liberally coat inside of skin with this 
mixture. 
For snow scenes take commercial alum, place 
it on a hot stove in a perfectly clean iron vessel 
and let it remain until the water of crystaliza- 
tion has been driven off, when it may be re- 
moved and crushed under a hand rolling pin. 
Mix a small proportion of fine mica with this 
burnt alum and you have the sparkling snow. 
Twigs and branches are frosted by dipping 
them in a hot saturated solution of common 
alum, Remove, dry and repeat until the 
desired effect is obtained, Icicles can best be 
bought of your taxidermist supply house. 
A moth infected mounted specimen, may be 
immersed in a can of benzine without injury to 
the specimen. After the specimen has become 
dry, it should be sprayed with some poisonous — 
Ben- 
zine from its inflammable nature should never 
solution to prevent further depredation. 
be used near a fire or light. 
To make papier mache, take paper pulp 
(dry) from the paper mills. one part by weight, 
add water and work until soft and pulpy; add 
two parts of thick glue—as prepared by 
carpenters for glueing—and mix with the pulp 
calcined plaster until the desired consistency is 
obtained. If not sticky enough, 
should be added. 
Arsenic water for Poisoning specimens, is 
more glue 
made by boiling arsenic and water together, 
using one ounce of arsenic to on? quart of water: 
but better resnlts are obtained by adding potash 
(%4the weight of the arsenic) to thearsenic and 
water, making an arseniate of potash which is 
more soluble in water. 
Solution of corrosive sublimate for spraying 
feathers of mounted specimens, is made by dis- 
solving one ounce of corrosive sublimate in one 
pint of alcohol. If after using, any white or 
gray powder shows on the feathers, the solution 
is too strong and should be diluted with more 
alcohol. 
