4i8 TAXIDERMY AND MODELLING 



To represent Frost, Ice, and Snow 



The appearances of these are difficult to produce satisfactorily, 

 and the usual method of rendering them, by means of a sub- 

 stratum of fine plaster of Paris over which " glass frosting " (to 

 be procured at the glass-blower's or artificial-eye maker's) is 

 sprinkled more or less thickly, fails to give the effect desired, 

 for, although the powdered glass scales do very well to repre- 

 sent ice, yet the dead and unnatural whiteness of the plaster is 

 but a poor substitute for the original " beautiful snow," and there 

 is no doubt that roughly-pounded lump sugar as a substratum, 

 thickly sprinkled with " glass frosting," gives the best results for 

 small studies ; but where expense is an object, a combination 

 of plaster of Paris as an underground, with sugar and glass 

 sprinkled over, must suffice. Alum roughly pounded or put 

 on hot and allowed to recrystallise, borax, and various other 

 substances are sometimes used, but in all cases where the 

 " snow '' or " ice " is required to adhere to twigs, boles of trees, 

 or rocks, no glue must be used, and paper-varnish, which is, 

 perhaps, the best to use for this purpose, turns yellow and 

 stains the " snow " at the time of using, or if not then, it does 

 so ultimately. 



An instance of this tendency can be seen in the ice-block 

 upon which a polar bear stands in the Leicester Museum. This 

 block was made of thin greenish glass in fairly large pieces, put 

 together and covered here and there with thin tissue-paper 

 subsequently varnished ; " snow " was strewn over the upper 

 surface, and " icicles " modelled in glass depended therefrom, 

 and the whole, when finished, looked as satisfactory as may be, 

 but the varnish, having now been on some years, has turned 

 everything of a yellowish hue, and the transparency of the ice 

 is completely lost, the whole looking as if under the influence 

 of a very dirty thaw. 



