16 
HINTS ON REMOVING AND 
over the eyes ; skin it entirely off over the mouth, cutting carefully 
round the lips. Throughout the operation plenty of fine sawdust 
will be found of great assistance in keeping the hands, and conse- 
quently the fur, dry and unsoiled. 
3. — Clean with sawdust the inside of the skin from blood, fat, etc., 
and then brush it all over with arsenical soap, being especially care- 
ful that the insides of the limbs get some put on them. Do not 
put any poison, especially powdered arsenic, on the outer, furry side 
of the skins. But pepper, naphthaline, or camphor may be used to 
keep off moths from the skin when travelling. 
4. — Turn the skin back right side out, and fill the cavity of the 
body with cotton-wool, putting it in as far as possible in one piece. 
Or the skin may be reversed over the wool by putting the forceps 
up the furry side of the skin from the tail-end, and grasping the 
wool body through the mouth. Take care just to fill out the skin 
without over-stretching it, and try to get all your skins filled out to 
about the same degree. Take a piece of straight wire long enough 
to extend from the front end of the belly-opening to the tip of the 
tail; sharpen, if necessary, one end of it, and wind round it enough 
cotton- wool to fill out the skin of the tail ; then brush it with arsenical 
soap, and push the pointed end down to the extreme tip of the tail- 
skin, and fit the near end into the belly, packing it round with the 
wool of the body. Put some wool into the empty skin of the arms 
and legs, winding it round the bones and connecting it with the wool 
of the body. Then stitch up the opening down the belly. Tie the 
label on to the right hind foot above the ankle. 
5. — Lay the skin on a board or piece of cork, draw out the fore 
paws forwards, and pin them down to the board by a pin passed 
boldly through the middle of the paw. Take care that they are 
pinned close in to the sides of the neck or head, in order to prevent 
their claws catching in other skins when all are packed together in 
boxes. Similarly, pin back, soles downwards, the hind feet by the 
sides of the tail. It is of considerable importance that neither fore 
nor hind feet should project laterally outwards, nor should curl up 
in drying, and that the fingers and toes should be kept close together 
and parallel, not spread out sideways. 
6. — As the skin dries, try to get the face to assume as natural 
