FISH SKETCHES AND FISH STORIES 377 



too!" Then, as a sudden thought seemed to strike 

 him, he cried: "Good gracious, gentlemen! How 

 did you hold your mouths?" 



In the lower part of New York, where the 

 Brooklyn Bridge crosses the narrow streets with its 

 arches, there was formerly a number of taxi- 

 dermists' shops, and there are still some left in 

 that neighborhood. There was one store occupied 

 by Mr. Wallace. It was 



A DARK, MYSTERIOUS PLACE 



filled with pungent odors and uncanny objects, as 

 like as not one would find a heap of dead animals, 

 trophies of the hunt, in the passage way. The 

 gloom of the store took as many fanciful shapes 

 as one's bedroom does when one has the night- 

 mare. There were huge gorillas, great serpents, 

 terrible nondescript animals. These things were, 

 however, real, while those we see in the nightmare 

 fade away when we open our eyes. When I say 

 the queer things in Wallace's shop were real I do 

 not mean that they were alive, I only wish to con- 

 vey the idea that they were real, substantial objects 

 and were specimens of 



MR. WALLACE'S SKILL AS A TAXIDERMIST. 

 The giant gorilla skin was never worn by a live 

 gorilla, but formerly clothed the back of some 

 bears. In truth there was nothing in connection 

 with this giant gorilla which came from a real ani- 

 mal of this kind. The teeth which gleamed in his 

 ugly mouth formerly were the pride and power of 



