4SG Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



bottles for insects, filled to near the top with spirit ; a dozen quires 

 or so of large bazar paper with a couple of pressing boards and straps 

 for ferns, &c. ; a broad mouthed glass bottle with a false bottom of 

 card, filled up with ammonia for capturing and killing moths, and 

 pins and a few soft deal store boxes, pill boxes for shells, a hammer and 

 chisel, compass and telescope. 



To economise spirit, a jar should be devoted to the reception 

 of recent captures, into which all animals may first be placed 

 after removing the entrails, and allowed to remain for a couple 

 of days. From this jar, they may then be transferred to a store 

 jar, the spirit of which, by this plan, will not require to be 

 changed, the spirit in the first jar alone requiring occasional re- 

 newal, as it gets foul by use. Unless an animal is opened and the en- 

 trails extracted, it is hopeless to suppose that it will keep well, as 

 the access of the spirit is not sufficiently free to effect the preserva- 

 tion of the contents of the abdomen, not to mention the saving of 

 space as well as the better preservation of the specimen this simple 

 operation secures. All small mammals and lizards, and snakes up to 3 

 or 4 feet in length are most effectually and easily thus preserved. 



It is a mistake too to suppose, as some people do, that a skin can 

 be properly prepared at any time, if once dried. ISTo skin can be 

 properly prepared that has not been preserved with arsenical soap 

 when fresh, — I mean for museum purposes, as of course a coarse hide 

 may be tanned at any time, — and it is best, therefore, never to defer 

 the process till next day, however tired one may be, if the specimen 

 is of interest ; neither is it safe to trust to a servant in such matters. 

 Some small work, however, on Taxidermy should be procured by any 

 one who has not previously made the subject a study, and is at the 

 same time anxious to collect during the trip. Skulls of animals are 

 comparatively easy to procure and carry, and are always worth so 

 doing ; but most people adopt a ruinous plan to prepare them, viz., by 

 macerating in water or burying them. This may clear them of flesh, 

 but it will cause the teeth to fall out. Whilst travelling, the best plan 

 is simply to pare off the flesh and dry them, with the ligaments and 

 lower jaw attached, in the sun, extracting the brain through the 

 occipital foramen, without however enlarging the aperture. By 

 this means the teeth remain fixed and the skull can at any subse- 

 quent period be properly cleaned and whitened with one or two coats 



