2 METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



feet, and one story in height, should occupy the ground floor, with two 

 good-sized windows at one end, a door at the side, made large enough 

 for the egress of your mounted elephants, horses, etc.; a sky-light in the 

 roof should be arranged so that it can be opened for ventilation. Ad- 

 joining this, a repository or museum hall should be built, 40 feet long 

 and 15 feet wide, with two sky-lights, made sufficiently large to admit 

 plenty of light. This hall should be furnished with glass wall and aisle 

 cases, made as nearly dust-tight as possible. My private museum hall, 

 at No. 239 Tenth Avenue, is of this same design and proportioned as 

 above. In our workshop, which still demands our attention, a dark 

 closet must be made for the drying of freshly mounted specimens, and 

 another for the storage of materials, such as tow, excelsior, and straw 

 by the bale, plaster of Paris, salt, and ground alum by the barrel or 

 hundred weight, and potter's clay by the ton. Make a work table 7 feet 

 long, '?>\ feet wide, and 2 feet 6 inches high, the top out of H-inch oak 

 plank, dressed ; make the table portable, so that you can fasten it to the 

 wall directly in front of the windows, or move it into the center of the 

 room under the sky-light. At one end of the table fix a heavy, iron 

 vise. Have sunken into this table, at one end, flush with the top, a 

 piece of plate glass 3 feet square, on which to skin birds. A chopping 

 block, made of a section of a sycamore, is an excellent thing for many 

 purposes. A case with drawers, to contain the necessary tools, should 

 be placed close by. Various sizes of stone, glass and earthen jars 

 should be provided in which to pickle the skins of the smaller mam- 

 mals. Make a large box-like tank or vat, constructed of oak and lined 

 with sheet lead, to hold the skins of the large subjects. Over this 

 tank, in the ceiling, should be fixed a rope and pulley to facilitate the 

 handling and turning of heavy skins. 



The salt and alum solution in which the skins are placed evaporates 

 very rapidly, and it is necessary to tack a thin strip of sheet-rubber 

 round the edge of the lid of the large tank to make it fit tightly. The 

 same construction ma}- be followed in making the lids for the stone jars. 



In taking the skins of mammals out of the salt and alum bath to 

 place or fit them on the manikin, or when the skins in this position are 

 wrapped in wet blankets to keep them moist during the process of sew- 

 ing, the liquid is constantly dripping from them. It is quite necessary, 

 therefore, to provide a water-tighl platform, properly drained, on which' 

 to stand the manikin. 



I have here described an ideal workshop, and it is not, by any 

 means, expected that the beginner will prepare so elaborately for a line 

 of work in which he has not attained proficiency. 



