76 HANDBOOK OF FOSSILS. 



Another plan is to fasten the label by one of its edges to the side 

 of the tray ; or, if the fossils are small and mounted on a piece 

 of card fitting into the tray, it may be gummed with them to the 

 card. 



Now let us take the shells we obtained from the dark-blue 

 clay, with those and the bones from the old river bed up above. 

 Gently turn them out of the tins, in which they were packed in 

 the quarry, on to a paper or the lid of a card-board box, and 

 with a pair of forceps pick them carefully out of the bran, and 

 place them in large shallow trays, taking care not to mix those 

 from the different beds. As we found when collecting them, these 

 shells are extremely brittle from loss of animal matter, and our 

 first object is therefore to harden them by some process, so that 

 they will bear handling. To accomplish this you must get a 

 saucepan, one of those wire contrivances for holding eggs when 

 boiling, or a big wire spoon, such as formerly was used for 

 cooking purposes, a packet of gelatine, and some flat pieces of 

 tin, which last are easily procured by hammering out an old 

 mustard or other tin, having previously melted in a gas flame 

 the solder wherewith it is joined. Half fill the saucepan with 

 clean water, and put in as much gelatine as when cold will make 

 a stiff jelly ; melt this over the fire, placing the fossils meanwhile 

 in a warm (not hot) corner of the fire-place ; then when the 

 gelatine is quite dissolved, pile as many of them, whole or in 

 pieces, into the egg-boiler, or spoon, as it will contain, hold them 

 for a second in the steam, and then lower them gradually into the 

 hot gelatine until it completely covers them. Little bubbles of 

 air will rise and float on the surface. As soon as these cease to 

 appear, raise the fossils above the surface and allow them to drip ; 

 then pick them up one by one with the forceps, and spread them 

 out on pieces of tin before the fire, but not too close to it. As 

 soon as their exterior surfaces become dry, and before the gelatine 

 gets hard, they should be taken up (they may be handled fearlessly 

 now), and the superfluous gelatine sticking to the surface gently 

 removed with a camel's-hair brush dipped in clean warm water ; 

 otherwise, when dry, they present an unnatural varnished appear- 

 ance, and have a tendency, on small provocation, to become un- 

 pleasantly sticky. 



Small bones may be treated in like manner, but for large 

 ones, weak glue is to be preferred to gelatine, which is only 

 suitable for the finer and more delicate objects. Where it is 

 desired to harden only a few things, it is better to mix the gelatine 

 in a gallipot, which can be heated when required by standing it 

 in a saucepan of water on the fire. In any case the gelatine 



