SKINNING AND PRESERVING MAMMALS. 149 



first, by facilitating the means of enveloping the model entirely, the 

 form of which had not been altered ; and, secondly, by ensuring its 

 speedy desiccation. This last had not been the least alarming, for 

 we feared that the humidity secreted in the skin might concentrate 

 in such a manner (notwithstanding we had taken the precaution to 

 give the wooden model a coat of oil paint) as to occasion mouldiness 

 in the parts exposed to the air. The alum with which it was saturated 

 soon crystallised on the interior, which at first gave it a very ugly 

 grey colour; but we entirely got rid of it by rubbing the surface 

 of the skin, first with spirits of turpentine, and then with oil of olives. 



Some little hints wbicli occurred to me as being useful to the 

 animal mounter I will now jot down: I have been frequently 

 asked, " Supposing I get a fat dog, or animal of any kind, to set 

 up, how can I manage such a subject satisfactorily 9 If I leave 

 the fat on the skin I am doing wrong in every way, and if I trim 

 it cleanly off, as it should be done, I stretch the skin to such 

 an extent that my dog is completely out of shape, and though 

 formerly a ' pug ' he speedily becomes a ' greyhound.' In fact, 

 I am in a quandary, and do not know what to do." 



My reply is : Try what a hot knife will do passed over the 

 skin, with sand or sawdust thrown on to absorb the fat as 

 it melts off. Candidly speak-ing, however, it is purely a 

 matter of experience to trim fat off a skin without stretching 

 it to any alarming degree, and in very fine- skinned animals, 

 if we find them stretch in spite of all care, we take advantage 

 of wrinkles to sew up here and tuck in there, resorting even, 

 in extreme cases, to cutting away portions of the skin, notably 

 m those parts underneath, hidden by the subsequent operation 

 of mounting. 



The skin of the soles of the feet of some animals requires 

 paring down. The bear is an instance of this. The hands 

 of monkeys also must be carefully skinned out to the extreme 

 tips of the fingers. These latter animals are best skinned 

 out from the hack, as a great many of our " relatives " have 

 but little hair on the abdomen to hide the stitches, added 

 to which their usually upright position tends still more to 

 show up any defect in sewing. 



Peat and straw may sometimes be used with advantage 

 in the bodies of large animals. 



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