NO. 42.— 1891.] ZOOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



67 



and then mounting in kerosine oil. This was, as we shall 

 presently see, what is called burning, in the game of hide and 

 seek. A row of fish prepared in this way was exhibited, and 

 preserved their form and colours beautifully for about six 

 months, until one morning I found them nearly all broken 

 up, and nothing left but a precipitate of muscle and bone at 

 the bottom of the bottles. I came unwillingly to the con- 

 clusion that there was no means known, or likely to be 

 discovered, that would preserve animals with a natural look 

 about them, and that I should have to content myself with 

 ordinary museum spirit specimens. There was one branch of 

 the animal kingdom, however, I had always been very anxious 

 to make a good show of, and that was spiders. I naturally 

 looked to microscopical preparations to solve that question, 

 and amongst them tried an old and long abandoned one :gum 

 and glycerine. This had been given up because of the great 

 difficulties experienced with the air bubbles which formed 

 so abundantly in it ; but that did not matter to me. There 

 was something about this mixture that strongly attracted my 

 attention. Its action was unlike anything I had seen before, 

 and I tried our beautiful little gold and red spotted fish in it, 

 so abundant in the Colombo lake, and which are always my 

 first test for the colour-keeping properties of any preservative. 

 I found these little fish become semi-transparent and as hard 

 as glass, and that their colours seemed as though burnt in. 



My health having broken down I was obliged to leave for 

 England for a year ; but I left behind me two rows of fish 

 prepared in this way, one mounted in kerosine the other in 

 glycerine, with strict orders that they should not be touched 

 till my return. I found twelve months afterwards that the row 

 in kerosine had broken up ; but those in glycerine were as 

 perfect as the day I left. Specimen A is one of them, 

 mounted in October, 1884. It is exactly the same as on the 

 day it was put up. The first trouble was the enormous 

 expense of the process. However, I overcame this to a 

 certain extent by filling up the bottles with lead vessels 

 painted white. You will see that all the fish bottles are 



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