PRESERVATION OF TROPHIES. 41 



A small penknife is also very useful, to sharpen which a small oilstone can be 

 taken. This can be used to divide the skin carefully from the base of the horns and 

 from eyes, lips, and nose, as well as for birds and smaller mammals. 



For pegging out skins 6-in. French nails are handy, or even 4-in., but, of course, 

 wooden pegs can be improvised. 



The preservatives taken should be alum, turpentine, salt, camphor, and Keating's 

 powder, and should be used unsparingly. 



The skin, having been pegged out, should be scraped as clean as possible, and 

 plenty of alum should then be rubbed in to dry it. Castor oil is made by the natives 

 and can be purchased from them or obtained locally, and, rubbed on the back of the 

 skin when dry (but not on the hair side), keeps away the bacon beetle, and should be 

 used liberally. 



The skin for packing should be rolled, not folded; the hair side drenched 

 with turpentine, and a copious sprinkling of Keating's and camphor packed with them. 



In spite of all these precautions, if the package is long on the journey the 

 obnoxious Bacon Beetle will be found in profusion on unpacking at its destination. 



Headskins should be turned inside out, so that after the rest has dried, parts, such 

 as the ears, can be continually rubbed with alum until all the flesh and fatty matter 

 has dried up, and also in this position turpentine, oil, &c., can be poured into 

 these parts and the folds, which are always the first to be attacked by insects. 



In theory, skins should be packed in air-tight, tin-lined boxes, soldered down, but, 

 of course, this is seldom feasible in the field. 



For small headskins and small mammals an ordinary flour tin, with lid which is 

 prized up with a knife or coin, is excellent, and this can be further rendered air-tight 

 by pouring melted sealing wax round the lid. 



Skulls should not be packed in the same box as skins^ as there is almost certain 

 to be a grub left inside the brain cavity or elsewhere, which will transform into the 

 beetle on the way. 



The lower jaw of a head meant to be set up should be attached with wire to the 

 upper, to prevent being lost or mislaid. 



As regards heads, the horns, if possible, should be drawn off the cores. They 

 should not be left too long in the sun while drying. Several days in a hot sun 

 will cause a kind of fermentation in the flesh and nerves at the base of the horn, 

 which may permanently discolour a part of it. 



They should be dried a little in the sun, but mostly in the shade, until the 

 horns can be drawn off. 



Putting them for long in water, or burying them, softens the thin base of the 



G 



