27S 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



hooks, spreading clips, and screws especially made for the purpose. No 

 use! for when the strong wind came it whipped the tarpaulins aloft, torn 

 and split like so many handkerchiefs, while the drying paper molds once 

 lying so smoothly and trim on the carved stone surfaces, were scattered far 

 and wide as bits of paper over the tree tops. 



The work was once more completed and this time Nature was in a more 

 lenient mood. The sun did its work even as we did ours, and in the proper 

 time, the molds duly prepared and rendered impermeable to moisture by 



The completed sectional mold of the serpent column. Note the many pieces tied 

 and wedged to await the drying and trimming process. Each separate piece weighs sev- 

 eral hundred pounds. For shipping to New York the molds were packed with dry 

 xkusac grass in cases of xpasac wood which had been cut in the forest and dried in the hot. 

 sun for months 



