THE REPRODUCTION OF FISHES IN PLASTER 229 



modelling-media, inside or outside the skin, is a fallacy, and 

 only in the hands of a most expert and artistic modeller does 

 it attain a measure of success. 



Be quite sure, therefore, that if any taxidermist, or his 

 patron, tells you that he can " stuff a fish like life," he deserves 

 the retort discourteous. 



If fishermen — unless their notorious shyness of the truth 

 blinds them to their own interests — would recognise these facts, 

 and would not be so anxious to save the mere skin of their 

 " finny prey," and would be clever enough to appreciate an 

 absolutely exact copy of it, unchangeable and indestructible, it 

 would do more to put a stop to the making of ugly mummies 

 than anything else, and make the " stuffers " turn their atten- 

 tion to art. Perhaps, however, there is something to be said 

 even for the worst of them when their patrons, with the usual 

 rectitude which distinguishes all fishermen, hint that, as 

 the pike they have just brought in " doesn't look his weight, 

 doncherknow — sixteen pounds two and a quarter ounces, 

 weighed after he had been out of the water three hours and 

 three-quarters " (quarters are very important in all weights and 

 measurements, as is well known !), " he had better be filled up a 

 bit, as there is no doubt he weighed quite two pounds more 

 when first caught, the dryness of the air" — and so on, and 

 so on. 



The home-coming of that gorgeously-bloated beast is a 

 triumph for the 'cute taxidermist, and, as a friend present 

 remarks, " He looks quite as big as what's-his-name's twenty 

 pounder — no, twenty pound three and a half ouncer." Struck 

 with the remark, the fortunate captor revels in the fact that no 

 doubt, as he weighed eighteen and a quarter pounds (by fisher- 

 men's calculation), he would, if left another day or so to feed, 

 have been quite twenty pounds in weight ; therefore that pike 

 of, probably, fifteen pounds original weight, goes down to 



