METHODS OF PALAEONTOLOGICAL INQUIRY. 71 



Often, however, the rock will not endure such cavalier treat- 

 ment; it is traversed in every direction by fine joints which 

 divide it into innumerable minute blocks, and, as the same joints 

 go through the fossil, the whole would fall into irretrievable 

 ruin, were it loosened by wedges; or the matrix may be inco- 

 herent and the bones soft and crumbling. In such cases a 

 method devised by Mr. Hatcher may be employed with full 

 assurance of success. This method consists in exposing the 

 fossil inch by inch with fine, sharp tools, and when a sufficient 

 surface has been laid bare, a strip of muslin soaked in flour paste 

 is pressed upon the exposed area, and the process is then 



FIG. 4. Getting out a Titanotherium skull. 



repeated until the whole upper surface is covered by the pasted 

 strips. Layer after layer of the strips is pasted on, the layers 

 crossing at right angles, and they soon dry and stiffen until they 

 become as hard as a board. The pasting is then extended to 

 the sides, and when these have been properly treated, the block 

 may be turned over and pasted upon the lower side, completing 

 the process by winding strips of coarse sacking, also soaked in 

 paste, around the whole block, until it is perfectly protected by 

 a rigid case, and will endure transportation and rough handling 

 indefinitely. By this most useful method very hopeless-looking 

 specimens may be saved and converted into highly valuable 



