SOME HINTS ON NATURAL HISTORY SPECiMENS. 107 
The * brine’ can most conveniently be contained in tubs or barrels with air- 
tight tops and the skin has then to be simply immersed in this ‘ bath) care 
being taken to keep it spread out as much as possible, so that the liquor can 
get at all parts and folds, and for the first few days it should be moved about 
to ensure this, It can then be folded up tight and packed away at the bottom 
of the bath so as to leave room for the treatment of other skins, 
It must be remembered that the bath will gradually lose its strength and 
more salt must be added after a time to keep it up to the proper standard, 
At the same time it will of course get dirty with grease and blood, when a 
fresh mixture must be made. Skins can fe kept for years in this pickle if the 
mouth of the receptacle be kept properly closed, but for the purpose of pre- 
servation a few days will suffice. Whenever the tim comes to remove speci- 
mens from the bath, they should be thoroughly cleansed in fresh cold 
water, ; ‘ 
But it is not only the skins of large mammals that form the trophies of the 
sportsman and naturalist, for the— 
Skulls and Skeletons, or at any rate the former, are worthy >f his care, and 
may even on some occasions be the only part that he can attempt to preserve, 
So far as the skull is concerned the process is not a difficult one. Having 
separated the head at the first cervical vertebra, the skull should be roughly 
cleaned of the flesh and sft parts, and then soaked, washed, and rubbed in 
cold water so as to remove as much blood as possible. It can then be dressed 
with thin arsenical soap, or better sprinkled with dry arsenic as the former 
may prevent its coming absolutely white when it is eventually cleaned, but 
remember that alum should never be put on a skull or skeleton, It should 
then be hung up in the shade and wind so that it will dry quickly. 
A skull may also at times be conveniently cleaned by immersing it in a tank 
or running stream whin one is handy, not forgetting at the same time to 
secure it to the shore in some way. What Hesh, &c., is not removed by the 
inhabitants of the water, willina few days bs sufficiently decomposed to 
allow of its being easily scraped off, and the arsenic can then be applied. 
It is of course hardly necessary for me to mention that if boiling is resorted 
to as a means of cleaning a skull it is impossible to ever make the specimen 
white, as the greases of the flesh permeate the bone and can never be removed. 
Of the preparation of rough skeletons, I can hardly attempt to treat with 
any dezree of success in the space at my disposal, and the subject is so fully 
dealt with in ‘'‘laxidermy’ already mentioned, that any one wishing to take 
up their preparation cannot do better than refer to it for the information, 
Before leaving the large mammals, I think it only right to specially mention 
the order— 
Cetacea or Whales, dolphins and porpoises, which Mr, Blanford describes in 
the preface to his ‘ Mammalia’ as “the order with which, at the present time, 
our acquaintance is most imperfect.” 
