PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 497 
or cuts by the aid of a hard brush (dog-grass, for example) with or with- 
out a handle, with which the paper is then methodically beaten on to 
the surface to be reproduced. 
When one is working on monuments or inscriptions of which the lines 
are very fine and elaborate, it is well to commence by first applying a 
sheet of white unsized paper of good quality to avoid the presence of 
vegetable fibers in the mold obtained. 
American inscriptions rarely have such a degree of fineness, and our 
travelers (collectors) have taken them simply with brown paper, of 
which I send you a specimen with this letter. 
This paper, remarkably elastic and fibrous, is sold by the firm of 
Batalla & Blain, merchants, commissioners, and armorers, No. 7 “ Rue 
Joliette,” Marseilles, who will furnish you as many bales as may be ne- 
cessary. To mold Angkor Thém in Cambodia, M. Aymonier took 30 
bales of this paper. 
You commence by applying one coat of this paper wet, and when it is 
properly beaten in or onto the surface, apply a good coat of flour paste 
to the surface of the paper ; apply a second wet sheet and use the brush, 
taking care in putting it on to cross the fiber of the paper—that is to say, 
to place the fibers crosswise if it is up and down in the first sheet, and 
vice versa. A new coat of paste; third thickness of paper pressed or 
beaten in as the first; paste; fourth paper crossed and beaten as sec- 
ond; paste, and then fifth sheet. 
With the fifth thickness or layer the mold has sufficient resistance 
The mold being dry in place, take it off and harden it. To do this we 
employ the following mixture: 
Sieiounipere Oil, Called fat oll. 00-22 ee eee cee ee ewes 3 parts. 
Pt ee GTIETICTI GENIC). <2 5 crs diel paterneele els o)- Siauisina sm scs yeas «| 1. part. 
se es 8 elo ia er a 2 eye icin ores vie oPyaek kas feces 1 part. 
Which is boiled, well mixed, and applied boiling to the paper mold. 
You will find in the package here sent a fragment of a mold from Pa- 
lenque thus hardened, and in which the proofs in plaster have already 
been cast. 
Believe me, dear sir, &c., 
DR. E. HAMY, 
40, rue de Lubeck. 
Proc. Nat. Mus. 83——32 
