138 PEACTICAL TAXIDEEMT. 



Coming along from liere by the side of tlie lower jaw, yon skin 

 by undercutting almost to tbe inside of tbe mouth., taking care 

 not to cut the thin membrane which holds at the extreme edge. 

 Still working along the lower jaw, come right up until you can 

 cut out, just under the eye, the top end of the return. Leaving 

 it attached by a thin membrane to the upper jaw, skin down- 

 ward toward the nose, and, by undercutting and using great 

 care, completely skin up to the nostril, which sever. Do pre- 

 cisely the same with the other side. The nostrils being com- 

 pletely skinned out, the skin holds just below them. Place the 

 head on the table, standing on the base of its skull, the ears toward 

 you. Take the nostrils with the finger and thumb of the left 

 hand, and with the knife (the broad knife will be found most 

 useful here) very carefully work all round until you arrive at the 

 extreme tip of the inner skin of the upper jaw, which is now 

 turned inside out, and actually rests below the under jaw. Your 

 cuts must be made a hair's breadth at a time to get to the 

 extreme edge. By this time the severed nostrils will have fallen 

 some little distance underneath the under jaw. See, now, that 

 the lips, both upper and lower, as well as the inner angles of 

 the mouth, are skinned inside to the extreme edge at every point, 

 or all your labour will be thrown away. This operation is one 

 of the most nice and difficult in the whole range of skinning 

 operations, and is equally difficult to describe. Cut out the 

 cartilage of the nose, slip out the tongue, and generally trim 

 the head in the usual manner, and well rub in the preservative. 

 If you should find too much of the inner angle left far up in 

 the mouth it may be cut o:S. 



If the head were returned now it would be seen that the lower 

 edges of the inside skin of the mouth were the only points of 

 attachment, and even there only to the edge of the teeth all 

 around them. 



The skull bone being now only attached to the subject, literally 

 by the " skin of its teeth," you have the whole bone exposed to 

 work on. 



Fill up the orbits and hollow bone of the nose with any loose 

 pieces of peat, to give solidity to the next operation, which is, 

 to cut pieces of peat in an artistic manner to represent the flesh 

 of the cheeks, the chin, the top of the head, and the cartilage of 



