15 



first taken to divide the hair to the right and left, and then to 

 avoid cutting through the abdominal muscles. 



The length of the incision will depend much on the skill of 

 the operator. A novice had better make it from the collar- 

 bone to within a short distance of the vent ; as he gains skill, 

 a shorter opening will suffice to enable him to remove the 

 carcase. A small quantity of powdered chalk, or of plaster of 

 Paris, should be at hand, to be used from a pepper-box in 

 dusting over and absorbing the blood whenever it may be 

 troublesome, or endanger the cleanliness of the fur. The skin 

 may then be removed from either side of the body, as far as 

 the fore and hind legs, by a careful use of knife and fingers. 

 The fore legs should be separated from the carcase by cutting 

 between the shoulder-blades and the ribs ; and the hind legs, 

 by cutting the integument which binds the head of the thigh- 

 bone to its socket in the hip. Leaving the separated limbs 

 for a time, the operator should continue skinning the body 

 downwards to the tail, the gut being cut through about an 

 inch from the vent, and the tail cut off at the first joint. The 

 skin may then be reversed and separated from the carcase 

 upwards to the neck. Continuing the inversion, the whole of 

 the neck should be skinned as far up as the skull, when, if 

 the head be too large to be drawn within the reversed skin 

 of the neck, as in horned animals, it may be separated from 

 the skull at the atlas or first joint of the vertebrae. The skin 

 should then be turned with the hairy side out, and a fresh 

 longitudinal incision made therein from the chin to a short 

 distance down the throat, in order again to get at the skull, 

 which must be carefully and cleanly skinned down to the lips, 

 taking particular care to cut the ears off close down to the 

 skull, and to avoid cutting the eyelids and lips. Carefully skin 

 the lips to the margin and even beyond, so as to leave as great 

 a portion as possible of the inner skin attached, in order to 

 preserve the natural appearance of the mouth when the animal 



