492 



TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



Eecipe for Making Arsenical Soap. 



Ingredients. 



White soap 2 pounds. 



Powdered arsenic 2 " 



Camphor 5 ounces. 



Suhcarbonate of potash 6 " 



Alcohol 8 " 



Directions. — Slice the soap and melt it in a small quantity of water over 

 a slow fire, stirring sufficiently to prevent its burning. When melted, add the 

 potash, and stir in the powdered arsenic, after which add the camphor, pre- 

 viously dissolved in the alcohol. When the mass has been boiled down to the 

 consistency of thick molasses, pour it into an earthen jar to cool and harden. 

 Stir it frequently while cooling to prevent the arsenic settling to the bottom. 

 When cold it should be like lard or butter. For use, mix a small quantity with 

 water until it resembles buttermilk, and apply with a common paint brush. 



How TO Skin a Quadruped, and Prepare the Skin for Mounting. 



(Subject chosen, a Tiger.) 



First measure the animal carefully and record the dimensions on the spot. 

 Then, as with all land mammals, make a straight clean cut from the throat 

 along the under side of the animal quite to the end of the tail. Slit each leg 

 from the centre of the foot, or the ''pad," along the hack of the leg to the 

 first joint, or the heel, and stop there. Begin at the incision along the middle 

 of the body, skin down the sides of the animal as far as possible, then detach 

 the legs at hip and shoulder. Skin each leg down to the very ends of the 

 toes, cut all the flesh and tendons from around the leg-bones as cleanly as pos- 

 sible, but leave the leg-bones attached to the skin at the toes, and to each other 

 by their ligaments. Make a slit along the bottom of each toe so that every 

 morsel of flesh may be removed, and erery inch of the skin be laid bare on its 

 inner surface to receive the preservatives. Skin down to the base of each claw. 



Detach the head from the body at the first cervical vertebra, and, as you 

 proceed with the head, turn the skin over wrong side out and work gradually 

 down to the end of the nose. When you reach the eye, insert a finger in it 

 from the outside to guide the movements of your knife and prevent your cut- 

 ting the edges of the eyelid or corners of the eye. The skin on the inner sur- 

 face of the lips must be cut close along the gums in all cases. After the skin 

 is detached from the skull, the lips must be slit open from the inside until the 

 fold or edge of the lip is reached, and the flesh inside the lip cut away. The 

 lip is now unfolded as it were all the way round, and in mounting the animal 

 the place of the flesh will be supplied with clay or putty and the lip folded 

 again as in life ; hence the importance of preserving the inner skin of the 

 lips. The roots of the whiskers form a large, thick lump on each side of the 

 nostrils, and these must be slit vertically, so as not to cut off the roots of t lose 

 long, stiff hairs. In most of the Felidm the whiskers are set in rows, so that it 

 is easy to slit the flesh between the rows of root-glands until coming down to 

 the skin itself. Rub the alum well into these gashes when preparing the skin. 

 The cartilage of .the ear must be skinned out from the inside by simply turn- 

 ing the ear inside out. 



