204 



METHODS IN THE ART OF TAXIDERMY. 



If you are so situated that the lead tank is out of the question, then 

 resort to kegs and barrels, while salt and alum may be procured any- 

 where you may travel in the world. If the design be to mount 

 the specimens collected in the field, this is positively the best manner 

 for their preservation, under all circumstances. 



Relaxing Dry Skins of Mammals.— I shall here describe the 

 method I have always employed in relaxing the dry skins of mam- 

 mals, whether they be the size of a mouse, or from that upward to the 

 size of an elephant. To relax an old, dry skin of a deer, elk, moose, 

 horse, or anything larger, the best plan is to place it in clear, luke- 

 warm water, or, in case that cannot be had, cold water will do. In 

 this condition, the skin must not be allowed to remain in the water too 

 long, and must be examined frequently to see that it does not macerate, 

 which will cause the hair to come out. It will soon become pliable, 

 however, especially if worked vigorously with the hands. The next 

 step is to take it out of the water bath, throw it over a beam, as the 

 tanners do, and either scrape it with a skin-scraper or toothed currier's 

 knife (Figs. 7, 8, Plate II), or thin the skin down with a sharp, com- 

 mon carpenter's draw-shave, or a keen-edged currier's knife ( Fig. 9, 

 Plate 11 ). Do not be afraid of cutting the skin too thin ; do not trim 

 down below the roots of the hair, for the hair will come out. Where 

 you cannot use the currier's knife or draw-shave, apply the scraper and 

 plenty of physical force. Work at the skin with the determination to 

 make it as soft and elastic as possible, and this can be done only by 

 hard zvork. It is sometimes necessary while at work to place the skin 

 on a smooth surface in order to work to the best advantage with the 

 scraper. 



To lessen the power of shrinkage in a skin, the fibres must be 

 separated, and this maybe done by cross-cutting the skin with a sharp 

 knife. This is particularly essential about the head, where frequently 

 a peculiar expression is to be obtained, and if the animal has whiskers 

 by this mode of cutting you are not liable to pare the skin down so 

 thin that the whiskers will come out. 



I once spent three days' labor on a horse's skin which was 

 two years and a half old, and at the end of the third day the skin was 

 almost as soft as a kid glove. If there were any faults in the shapes 

 which I afterward gave to the various parts of the skin on the clay 

 model, they could not be attributed to the condition of the skin, for its 

 pliability was all that could be desired. You cannot give the proper 

 form to a skin that is hard and thick. 



In order to have complete control over the shaping of a skin to 



