750 
AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 
that the salt has entered into every part of the skin tissue, 
when it may be left for weeks either rolled up more or less 
moist or dried in the shade. Care should be taken with 
dried, salted skins not to subject them to the atmospheric 
moisture of rainy weather or of moist districts near the coast 
or otherwise, as the moisture in the atmosphere is then 
often able to extract the salt and cause the skin to decay. 
The best plan to follow is to pack the salted skins in barrels 
and cover them with brine or, if they have been thoroughly 
dried, pack them in tin cases and seal them up so that they 
may remain protected from any external moisture. Barrels 
for this purpose should be free from oil, grease, or infection 
of any sort which may be communicated to the skins. 
Packing in this way also prevents the action of skin-eating 
beetles or the growth of bacteria or fungi which may 
destroy the skins if left exposed. 
Salt not being available, the skins may be simply dried 
provided the climatic conditions will permit. The skins 
should be carefully spread out horizontally, hair side down, 
in the shade of trees or of a tent stretched either on poles or 
a series of lines, so as to allow free access of the air to both 
surfaces. In very dry regions perfect skins may be obtained 
by simply pegging the skins out on the ground in the shade, 
hair side to the earth. The drying must take place rather 
rapidly, that is, within a day or two, otherwise decay will 
set in. Drying skins in the sun usually causes them to 
decay and slip on the epidermal or hair side and then dry 
afterward. Such a dried skin has the appearance of a per¬ 
fectly dried specimen, but its condition is at once evident 
upon softening in water by the separation or sloughing of the 
hair as well as the epidermal layer. In the preparation of 
