Guide to Taxidermy 



97 



the body and turned inside out. Clean off any 

 pieces of flesh or fat that may be on the skin, and, 

 with the scissors very carefully cut about the lips, 

 removing the gristly substance that is to be found 

 there on all animals; try not to cut through the skin 

 and be careful not to cut off and loosen the ends of 

 the "whiskers" on each side of the upper lip. Now 

 thoroughly poison the skin with your arsenical soap, 

 sprinkle it with sawdust and turn it right-side out 

 again. It is best to roll the skin up and place it in 

 a closed box or else do it up in paper while you are 

 cleaning the skull and making the body for it. This 

 will prevent the skin from drying; it can also be 

 left over night and be in good condition to work on 

 the next day if you wish. It will ])robably take 

 you an hour or so to get the body ready to put the 

 skin on. 



Cleaning the Skull 



Cut off the end of the skull just back of the ears, 

 using the skinning knife for small animals and the 

 meat saw for large ones. This will leave the brains 

 exposed and they can readily be scooped out with 

 the point of the knife. Remove the eyes with your 

 scalpel and clean every vestige of meat from the 

 skull. It will be best if you can now put the skull 



