HOW 'TO PRESERVE SKINS. Ill 



Begin at the center cut and slit the legs down as far as 

 the knee joint in the fore legs, and down to the hock joint 

 in the hind legs. Now make a slight turn and continue the 

 cut down the back part of the leg to the foot, as shown by 

 the dotted lines in Fig. 1. These are all the opening cuts 

 that are necessary to skin a large animal, except when it has 

 horns. It is then necessary to make an opening at the back 

 of the neck and cut completely around the base of the horns 

 as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 3. 



Lift the skin, beginning at the middle of the abdomen, 

 and cut it neatly from the carcass, leaving little or no flesh 

 adhering to it. Detach the skin as much as possible from 

 the legs and continue skinning until you come to where the 

 fore leg joins the body at the shoulder and the hind leg at 

 the hip. Cut through the muscles of the shoulder and hip 

 and thereby detach the legs entirely from the body. You 

 have now severed the legs from the carcass and they lie 

 before you. Cut all the flesh and tendons from them, but 

 have the bones attached to each other by their natural liga- 

 ments. The next thing to do in large animals is, to cut the 

 leg bones off at the first joint above the foot, at the lower 

 end of what is called the sesamoid bone. They should now 

 be tied in a bundle and always shipped with the skin. 



Never throw away the leg bones of any animal which 

 you intend to have mounted. A taxidermist must have the 

 leg bones and skull in order to do accurate work. Detach 

 the skin down the back to the neck and cut the ears off close 

 to the head and skin as much of them as possible. Con" 

 tinue until you come to the eyes. Be very careful here or 

 you will cut through the eye lids. Cut slowly and keep as 

 close to the socket as you can. You will now notice a thin 

 membrane; through this, cut and continue to skin down to 

 the nose, cutting through the cartilage of the nose close to 



