8 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



a conception of physics as to be able to decide upon the possible and 

 the impossible in animal postures. In a way, he should be a good 

 artist, be enabled to use the photographic camera, and make intelligent 

 sketches of animals of all kinds and their natural haunts. He should 

 be fully abreast of the times in all taxidermic technique per se, and 

 possess fine mechanical skill. 



As full a knowledge as can be attained of the habits of animals 

 from personal observations should be added, as well as a constitutional 

 desire to become familiar through current literature with all advances 

 made from time to time in his art, and a healthy ambition to ever 

 utilise them and improve upon the same. 



So far as human ability is concerned, were I at this moment called 

 upon to decide as to the relative merits of the talent required to paint a 

 life-sized elephant, to sculpture one in stone, or to properly preserve one 

 in a natural position and colour so that it would safely resist the ravages 

 of time and all else that might injure it, I should not hesitate a moment 

 in rendering an opinion, for I should say it lay with the scientific 

 taxidermic artist. Mind you, when I do thus decide, I have had in my 

 lifetime, with specimens of smaller animals, experience with all. At 

 the best, however, the difference is but of very small degree, and yet 

 the taxidermist, in a way, should be master of both the art of the 

 painter and the art of the sculptor, for frequently he has to use the 

 brush with great fidelity to nature, and the time is fast coming on when 

 he must be able to build up, in clay at least, the entire forms of the 

 larger animals which he aims to preserve. 



Next, it may be asked, why a collegiate education ? Simply because 

 I believe a man in any calling is a better man in every way for having 

 received the four years' training which a university gives him. And surely 

 neither the taxidermist, nor the artist, nor the sculptor offers any exception 

 to the rule. Moreover, everything that the skilled taxidermist would 

 acquire in a college course would materially assist him in his profession 

 in his subsequent career. Whatever may have been written, and what- 

 ever may have been said on the broad question of the college man 

 versus the self-made man, it has been my experience that the kind of 

 men that bring our country the most desirable recognition from other 

 nations are those who have received a liberal education. A taxidermist 

 should be a good general biologist, and he should pay especial attention 



