THE REPRODUCTION OF FISHES IN PAPER 251 



consisting of some hundredweights of plaster together with a 

 vast amount of water. However, by pressing more men into 

 the service, and by leverage and gently rocking the mass to 

 and fro, also tapping with a wooden mallet along the seam, 

 one half loosened, came away, and was removed. The other 

 half, being the weightier, was more difficult, but was at length 

 levered on edge against the wall, and the fish dropped out when 

 the planks were removed. It was washed and dragged t:o the 

 tank, where it now remains in bichromate solution (Formula 

 43) awaiting skeletonising, and is as fresh as when it came in. 



The two halves of the mould, taking a long time to dry, 

 were not fit for use for some months, being too heavy to 

 move about into the sun or near the fire. At length, being 

 dry, they were thoroughly dressed inside with grease and oil, 

 and this was repeated every other day for a week. 



It stood for some little time, and then came the making 

 of the model by the direct paper process. One half of the 

 mould having been well oiled — this time with colza-oil, — 

 tissue-paper of good quality was pasted on one side with the 

 paste (Formula 90), and laid carefully down in fairly small 

 pieces, pasted side downwards, inside the mould ; this first coat 

 should be, and was, extremely well laid, all tendency to wrink- 

 ling being patted or " stippled " with one of the brushes (Fig. 

 E), and where it tore, as it did occasionally, a fresh piece was 

 pasted over at once ; so it progressed until the inner surface 

 was completely covered, the paper being moulded and coaxed 

 and patted and stippled into every depression. This skin was 

 followed by another treated in precisely the same manner ; the 

 third was, however, /aj^sa? on both sides. These three thicknesses 

 of tissue-paper were followed by three thicknesses of " cap " 

 paper, and these by one of thin brown paper, one of " cap," one 

 of thin brown, and finally by three of thick brown paper, mak- 

 ing twelve layers in all. Strengthening ribs of six thicknesses 



