THE SNAKES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 48 
When transportation takes place every individual specimen 
must be wrapped in butter muslin, otherwise the fins and tails 
will be frayed and often broken. 
Every specimen should be labelled by a leather tag, 
numbered, and noted up in the collector’s catalogue. 
As regards the preservation of the colours of the sea fish, 
I have not been very successful if the specimens are left over 
two months in the formalin soda solution. The best results 
seem to be obtained by leaving the specimens in the formalin 
for about two weeks and then transferring to alcohol for about 
half an hour, and then place them permanently in glycerine and 
water, equal parts of each. 
Like many other good things this ‘ Jores’ ’ method is very 
expensive, and properly to handle and preserve a large collection 
of, say, 250 fish ranging in size up to ten pound specimens, 
the cost for solution alone may come to £25. 
Warning . — It should be remembered by those who work 
with ‘ lores’ ’ solution, when using it in bulk, that the continual 
daily submersion of the hands and arms in the tanks, sometimes 
for over an hour at a time, renders the collector very liable 
to toxaemia. The skin absorbs a large quantity of the salt 
contained in the solution, and after some weeks of work a severe 
rash breaks out not only on the hands and arms but on many 
parts of the body and legs. This form of drug poisoning is 
most disagreeable, and I strongly advise all who employ ‘ Jores’ * 
solution in large quantities to provide themselves with long 
india-rubber gloves reaching well above the elbow. 
THE SNAKES OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 
By C. W. Hobley 
If one thinks of the matter it will be generally admitted 
that a knowledge of the snakes of this country is a matter of 
importance to all who are resident in it. From an economic 
point of view snakes have a value, for they kill and eat large 
numbers of rodents which damage gardens and crops, some 
