PREPARING AND STUFFING ANIMALS. 
mended ; but the liquor prepared by M. Guyot, baying a high 
reputation in France, is made as follows : — Take twenty pints of 
the best Cognac brandy, and withdraw by distillation five pints ; 
add to what remains equal parts of well water and a pound of 
the green flowers of lavender, and again distil them to dryness. 
This "clone, take twelve parts of the spirits of wine which has 
been distilled. Mix them with sixty -nine pints of well water, 
and add to the mixture equal parts of the liquid furnished by 
distillation. This is the Guyot preserving fluid, which is per- 
fectly pure and limpid, and of a bitter taste, and slightly 
aromatic smell, containing only one part of alcohol to thirty of 
water. Monro adds small doses of nitric or muriatic acid to 
this liquor. Kuysch used spirits of wine distilled with the 
black powder of card amine and camphor. 
Before immersing objects of natural history in this liquid, 
they should be carefully washed in many baths of pure water 
at a moderate temperature, more especially all marine animals 
and Crustacea, which would be destroyed without this precau- 
tion. When immersed they require to be watched, and the 
liquor rendered weaker or stronger, as may be required. 
“ The spirituous liquor,” says Dufresne, “ is still preferable 
to all other modes of preservation.” We recommend to travel- 
lers to put into the spirit all the fish they preserve ; but let us 
indicate the precaution to be taken for their transport. In 
long voyages furnish yourself with little barrels, holding from 
thirty to sixty pints, with iron hoops. At one of the ends make a 
species of valve, with a bevel about six inches long, fill the cask 
with the liquor to about two-thirds. When you have a fish to 
preserve, and having taken note of all connected with it, roll it 
up in a piece of linen and tie it, attaching to it a piece of wood 
on which a figure has been carved corresponding with that in 
the note-book, and plunge it into the liquor through the 
valve, which ■ is again hermetically closed. Should the fish 
show by the swelling ovarium that she is full of eggs, they 
should be removed by an incision in the anus, plunging the 
knife towards the anterior part of the ventre, and extracting the 
eggs, which would soon escape, and reduce the liquor below the 
required strength, if left in the fish. 
As a layer of fish is deposited in the barrel, a layer 
of cotton should follow, so as to prevent them from shaking 
with the motion of the ship. The barrel should not contain 
more than two -thirds of fish, the remainder being made up 
with cotton and liquor. 
