A I^EW AND EASY METHOD OF MOUNTING FISH MEDALLIONS. 39 
Before skinning a fish, Mr. Pillaj always covered tlie whole of 
it with a sheet of soft paper gummed on firmly. He then 
drew a line along the middle of one side, and with pen and ink 
made a number of marks across it, so that after being cut open 
the edges could once more he drawn together exactly as they 
were before. After skinning the fish and applying arsenical soap, 
it WTis filled with raw cotton, of a kind known as silk cotton, 
plucked from the pod and cleaned by hand. This cotton more 
nearly resembles down in fineness and softness, than the long- 
fibered cotton batting we are able to buy. Mr. Pillay assured 
me that the exquisite smoothness of his specimens was due to the 
use of silk cotton alone, and not to any secret process. His 
sharks were very life-like in every respect, but his rays and ray- 
like Phynobatii were somewhat faulty. Being filled with loose, 
or fibrous filling, they of course lacked that extreme flatness so 
characteristic of the fishes of .Bijs type. 
Usually fish specimens, both large and small, are opened under- 
neatli the body from head to tail, filled with soft filling around a 
piece of wmod in the body, and mounted entire, on either one or 
two brass standards which are screwed or driven into the wood 
inside the fish and fastened into a pedestal below. Such speci- 
mens are usually mounted as high above the bottom of the 
pedestal as would be equal to half the width of the specimen, 
often more, and in this way much valuable space is taken up un- 
necessarily, or in other vmrds wdtli no real advantage to the 
specimen. In mounting a whole fish the liabilit3^ to distort its 
shape is, of course, twice as great as it would be were only one- 
half of it taken. Again, it takes twice as long to skin and 
mount a whole fish as it would to mount half of the same, in 
addition to the necessity for standards. In view of the above 
important facts, added to tliat of the greater difficulty experienced 
in mounting a whole fish than with the half only, I submit the 
proposition that it is more advisable, from the standpoint of the 
taxidermist, to mount half fishes only, or fish medallions. 
A fish in medallion may be lain upon the bottom of a table 
case or fastened to the back of an upright case, or fastened upon 
a thin board which may be hung upon the wall at pleasure, and 
also framed if desired. In any of these situations the sjaecimen 
may veiy easily be provided with a background of fine tinted 
card board, glued to the wood, of the proper color to harmonize 
