140 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



the place where the " knob " or head of the femur showed in 

 the model, by a knife and a saw, precisely as if it had been an 

 operation in the flesh. The whole of the leg, just attached at 

 the inner surface, was moved bodily forward to the position 

 shown. The same thing was done to the off fore limb, to allow a 

 closer grasp of the paw on the neck of the tiger already finished. 



In casting this tiger, seven bucketfuls of plaster were used 

 on one side, five on the other, and two for the inside of the four 

 \Ggs—d.e. 2\ cwts. of -common plaster altogether. 



About 8 lbs. of burnt alum and 2 lbs. of nitre (see Formula 

 59, p. 75) were made into a paste with warm water in a 

 bucket and used for the skin, the paws and head being dipped 

 into water next morning preparatory to further skinning. 



To harden the tongue, a saturated solution of salt was used 

 to rernove the blood, followed by bichromate of potassa, to 

 which a little methylated spirit was afterwards added. 



In some of the specimens — notably in that of the elephant 

 (see p. 142 and Plate VI.) lying under the fighting tigers, and 

 in a zebra and some others, — the head, not being required to 

 show the teeth, has been removed and modelled from by the 

 direct paper process, and therefore no bone whatever has been 

 retained ; and in all deer it is only necessary to retain a small 

 triangular plate of bone to carry the horns (see " Horned 

 Head," p. 151). 



It having been found that the nine layers of pasted paper 

 not only took a long time to dry, but were too weak for such 

 large animals as tigers and lions, a supposed further improve- 

 ment was effected by making the model of twelve, viz. three 

 thicknesses of pasted paper thoroughly moulded into every 

 " quirk " and muscle, followed by alternate layers of thin and 

 thick brown paper, nine in number, glued upon each other. 

 The strength of this was surprising even by the next day, but 

 in a few days it was as firm and solid as possible. Since that 



