AFRICA. 2^75 
perties, and fiicceeded with me perfeftly, a$ 
may be feen in my cabinet. 
I cannot fay fo much for the common fair, 
which the planters ufe onfimilar occafions. In 
my opinion, to fait a fkin is to fpoil it: and 
this I have feen confirmed among them by 
experience. Befide that fait does not pre- 
vent certain infedts from coming to depofit 
their eggs in them, and injuring the hair ; it 
preferves a certain degree of humidity, and 
confequently a germ of deftruftion, which 
never fails to take effed: during the paffage by 
fea, or if it remain long on board a vefTel. 
Before I brought the fkin of a giraffe into 
Europe, one had arrived in Holland ; but, hav- 
ing been put into fait, it was fpoilt; as indeed 
it was before it left the Cape. 
With refpefl: to the fl^eleton of this animal, 
which makes part of the colledlion at the 
Hague, a writer, who is no naturahft, fays, in 
the Journal de Paris ^ May 26, 1788, that he 
faw there a fkin entire, with the fkeleton of 
the beautiful quadruped to which it belonged. 
The fkeleton indeed exifts : but, the fkin be- 
ing fpoilt, a fpecimen or fample of it only 
is commonly fhewn to the curious. I have 
F 2 xiQ 
