224 PRESERVATION OF SKINS, HEADS, AND HORNS. 



The skin should then be detached from the flesh, one or two men working on each 

 side until they have cleared it right down to the spine, and as far as the paws. In doing 

 this, care should be taken not to leave pieces of flesh, fat, or cartilage adhering to the 

 skin, as their removal hereafter will merely entail double labor. The feet may now be cut 

 off and left hanging to the skin for the present, while the tail is carefully skinned. 



The next process is to remove the skin from the skull, when precautions must be taken 

 against cutting the cartilage of the ears too short off, enlarging the eyelids, or injuring 

 the roots of the whiskers when separating the lips from the jaws. 



The carcase may now be dragged away, the skull being first cut off if it is required, 

 and one man should be told off to skin each foot. The pads of the sole and of each 

 toe should be cut away with a sharp knife, and all the bones of the feet carefully dissected 

 out, until nothing is left attached to the skin but the last articulations with their respective 

 claws. 



The skin of the head should next be cleaned, care being taken to remove all flesh 

 from the base of the ears, and to pare down the lips as closely as can be done without 

 loosening the whiskers, which add so much to the appearance of a skin. 



While the skinning was going on, a clean level place should have been selected 

 in a shady situation ; and a number of thin pegs made of hard wood or of stout iron 

 wire should be in readiness. 



The skin should now be spread out hair downwards, and having been stretched 

 a few inches longer than the measurement taken of the dead Tiger, a peg should be 

 driven through the nose, and another through the tail, near the tip. 



The four limbs should next be stretched out at right angles to the central line and 

 firmly pegged down, the position of each peg being carefully measured, so as to insure the 

 skin being perfectly even. 



In like manner the whole skin must be carefully stretched and secured by numerous 

 pegs along its margin, remembering always that each peg on one side must have a 

 corresponding peg on the other. 



The skin having been thoroughly stretched — and the more quickly this is done 

 the better — it should be carefully examined, with a view to removing any flesh or fat 

 that may still adhere to it, and then well rubbed with a flat stone. Powdered alum 

 should then be thickly sprinkled on the skin and thoroughly rubbed in, while the lips, 

 eyes, ears, paws and tail may be advantageously anointed with arsenical soap. 



Should the weather be very hot it is well to sponge the skin both inside and out, 

 as soon as it is removed from the carcase, with a solution of carbolic acid, which 

 will arrest putrefaction. 



The skin should remain stretched until it is perfectly dry, being well rubbed from 

 time to time, and arsenical soap or diluted carbolic acid being freely applied to any part 

 where there may be any suspicion of taint. When quite dry, the pegs should be care- 

 fully removed, and the skin hung up in the shade until camp is moved, when it should 

 be rolled up with the hair inwards. 



