142 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



It remained in this bath (the skin being turned and the liquor 

 stirred twice a week) for fourteen days, and came out perfectly 

 cured, without a blemish, and remains intact to the present day. 



The skin was pared down quite thin, especially inside the 

 feet, with the result that 63 lbs. weight of " chips " or 

 parings were taken ofif, leaving the skin i cwt. (130 lbs. when 

 wet). During the pickling of the skin, however, three men 

 were employed casting from the body and making the 

 skeleton. 



The elephant was laid on its right side, placed in the 

 required position, the legs propped apart as in the tiger (see 

 p. 129 and Plate III.), and surrounded with a wall of clay. The 

 upper legs were slung to the ceiling to support them at the 

 width required ; the plaster was then poured on the insides of 

 the lower limbs (now their upper surface), and brought up to 

 the insides of, and half-way up, the topmost limbs in one piece. 

 The head was next cast in three pieces — one piece at the back, 

 one at the lower jaw, and the other on the side of the face now 

 uppermost, which included the trunk. The next piece embraced 

 the neck, shoulder, and the upper surface of the fore limb. 

 The body was cast in one piece from this point up to the hind 

 leg ; next the rump and top part of the hind leg was cast. 

 All of these took as their boundary the ridge of the back. 

 The carcase was now turned over by levers and pulleys, and 

 the casting was finished by repeating the process, beginning 

 at the side of the face left undone, and following on as before. 



When the moulds were dry, they were brushed inside with 

 grease and oil, and subsequently a direct paper model — made in 

 the same manner as detailed for the tiger at p. 132, but much 

 thicker — was built up, and strengthened inside by props of wood, 

 and by packing with dry waste-paper and shavings, the skin 

 being stretched over and sewn with thick cord entered in sail- 

 makers' needles, and fastened here and there with a " clout " 



