( Ixxxi ) 



y^ars, is carefully described in " Travels in the Interior of 

 Southern Africa" (vol. i, pp. 469 — 473. London, 1822), 

 Burchell much wanted to preserve a large Puff Adder which 

 had been killed near Klaarwater, on Nov. 19, 1811, by one of 

 his Hottentots. In the absence of bottles, kegs, and spirits, 

 " the idea was at last imagined of drying the skin, on the same 

 principle, and in the same manner, as would have been done 

 with a large leaf. . . . The whole process was exti'emely 

 simple, and consisted merely in cutting it open, along the 

 under part, entirely from the head to the point of the tail, 

 and stripping off the skin, which was found to separate with 

 the greatest facility. All the flesh was cut away as closely as 

 possible to the head, which was left entire. The skin was 

 then spread flat on a sheet of large strong paper, and placed 

 between a nvunber of other sheets to absorb the moisture. It 

 was put into the press, leaving the head out so as not to be 

 crushed, and kept there till perfectly dry ; taking care every 

 day, or every other day, to remove the sheets that had be- 

 come damp, and replace them by an equal quantity of dry 

 paper ; but the skin itself was never separated from that 

 sheet to which its inner side had adhered. . . . The skin 

 requires no antiseptic preparation, nor any varnish to be 

 applied to it : nor is any gum, or paste, at all necessary for 

 making it adhere to the paper ; a certain glutinous property 

 of its own being suflicient for that purpose. . . . The 

 paper used for this purpose was a strong white cartridge-paper, 

 . . . The most convenient mode of applying the skin to 

 the paper, is by the assistance of a short rollei', or cylinder, 

 held in the hand, and on which the skin and paper are 

 gradually rolled. By these means, only one part of the skin 

 coming on to the paper at one time, the due stretching and 

 placing of it is managed with the greater exactness : . . . 

 I ought not in this place to omit mentioning, that, on an 

 occasion, about a year later, when one of my Hottentots 

 brought me a large caterpillar^^ [this may be No. 3, the 

 specimen of livornica, without data], " the colours of which 

 were exceedingly beautiful, and its delicate marks beyond the 

 power of imitation, I was induced to try the experiment of 

 preserving it in the manner I had adopted for the serpents. 



PROC. ENT. SOC. LOND., V. 1904. G 



