MANNER OF COLLECTING ANIMALS. 103 



them on a stone, and striking them with a hatchet or mallet. 

 The nails or hoofs must be left attached to the skin. After 

 this, the skin is removed from the feet, legs, and thighs, and 

 treated in other respects as pointed out in skinning the Ele- 

 phant, at page 21. The bones of the head must be preservea 

 if possible, leaving it attached at the muzzle only. All the 

 muscles must be removed from the head, and the bones ren- 

 dered as clean as possible. 



As it is probable that an animal of this magnitude has been 

 killed at a great distance from any habitation, there will not 

 be an opportunity of macerating the hide in alum and water, 

 as pointed out for the Elephant. The skin will also be too 

 thick for the arsenical soap to penetrate with effect. Under 

 these circumstances, the next best thing to preserve it, is to 

 take the ashes of a wood fire, and rub it well inside. The 

 skin should then be stretched along the boughs of a tree, and 

 allowed to dry. The skull, after it has also been dried, must 

 be returned into the skin, and the lips, ears, and feet, im- 

 bued plentifully with turpentine, which operation must be 

 several times repeated at intervals. Nothing is more effectual 

 in preventing the attacks of insects than this spirit, and no 

 larvae will exist in places which it has touched. 



The skin will be sufficiently dried within two or three days, 

 so that the hair may be turned inwards. If some common 

 salt can be procured, a solution of it should be made, and the 

 hair rubbed with it. Both sides of the skin must be rubbed 

 with this two or three times, at intervals of a day. 



When sufficiently dry, the skin may be rolled up and packed. 

 The hair ought to be inwards, with a layer of dried grass in- 

 tervening, to prevent friction during conveyance. The opera- 

 tion of rolling up the skin must be begun at the head. 



If the journey is long, the skin should be unrolled, and 

 placed in the sun for a few hours, and the places liable to the 

 attack of moths should be again rubbed with turpentine. 



When a skin thus prepared has reached the place where it 

 is to be put up, it must undergo a preparation previous to 

 its being mounted. In the first place, it must be extended 

 along the ground with the hair undermost, so that it may ac- 

 quire fresh pliability, and those parts which remain stiff must 

 be moistened with tepid water. The skin must then be placed 



