for at least an hour, or else in twelve 
changes of water, with five minutes 
soaking between each change. They 
should then be removed from the plate- 
washer, the backs wiped clean and dry 
with a piece of chamois or a perfectly 
lintless towel, and the emulsion side 
freed of all superfluous water by lick¬ 
ing with the tongue. A piece of wet, 
very soft, chamois may be used for re¬ 
moving the drops of water from the 
surface of the emulsion, but even this 
may leave slight scratches on the emul¬ 
sion which may show in big enlarge¬ 
ments. Wet absorbent cotton, frequent¬ 
ly recommended for this purpose, 
nearly always leaves a few hairs which 
dry into the emulsion, even when most 
carefully used, and on the whole I pre¬ 
fer the tongue as the most efficient 
wiper for the surface of the emulsion. 
The plates are then set in the rack 
to dry, and the rack placed in a situa¬ 
tion where there is no danger of float¬ 
ing dust. In very humid weather the 
plates may take many hours to dry, 
and as they dry from the margins in¬ 
wards, the central portion of the plate 
will be denser than the peripheral por¬ 
tion. Rather than run the danger of 
thus completely ruining the negatives 
it is best in very humid weather to 
space the plates widely in the rack 
and to play the breeze from an electric 
fan between the plates, or if no fan 
is available to soak the plates sep¬ 
arately in ethyl alcohol (not in cheap 
wood alcohol), wipe off the surplus 
alcohol with chamois and place them, 
widely separated, in the rack. 
The character of the negative to be 
aimed at will depend to a very large 
extent upon the printing process which 
is to be used. For enlarging on bro¬ 
mide paper, or for printing on gas¬ 
light paper, the negative should be of 
delicate gradation and full of detail, 
yet with sufficient contrast to avoid 
any tendency towards flatness in the 
prints. A good test by which to rec¬ 
ognize the ideal negative for enlarg¬ 
ing or for printing on gaslight paper, 
is to hold the negative at an angle 
against a sheet of pure white paper, 
with the light in front, when all de¬ 
tails should show up plainly. If it re¬ 
quires to be held between the eye and 
the light to see fine detail the negative 
is too dense for the best results in en¬ 
larging. For printing in platinum or 
on P. O. P. or self-toning papers the 
negative should be denser. It is quite 
possible to produce a negative which 
will yield good prints by any of the 
above methods, as a negative of fair 
density, yet with good gradation, will 
give good results on soft bromide, on 
normal or soft gasligh^. paper, on plat¬ 
inum, and on P. O. P. or self-toninj 
paper. But if enlarging is the main 
object in view, and this method is 
essential for the best results in nature 
photography, it is best to keep the 
negatives on the thin side. The best 
advice in regard to the aftertreatment 
of negatives by intensification or re¬ 
duction is—don’t. The rewetting of a 
negative is always attended with dan¬ 
ger, and since it is only valuable neg¬ 
atives which are worth the trouble of 
attempts at improvement, these are the 
very negatives with which no risks 
should be run. It is far better to learn 
to expose and develop correctly, than to 
have recourse to after-processes, and 
by a judicious selection of the grade 
of printing paper — extra-hard, hard, 
normal or soft—it is possible to obtain 
good prints from negatives which dif¬ 
fer widely in density. 
If a negative is so contrasty that 
even when printed on the softest papers 
the shadows are completely blocked up 
by the time the high-lights have reg¬ 
istered properly there is a process 
which may effect considerable improve¬ 
ment. This method, which may be 
termed equalization, is carried out as 
follows: 
The negative is washed until per¬ 
fectly free from hypo, or if dry soaked 
in running water for fifteen minutes. 
It is then placed in the following solu¬ 
tion : 
Copper sulphate . 3 grms. 46 grains 
Potassium bromide.3 grms. 46 grains 
Water .250 cc. 8% oz. 
which is allowed to act until the high¬ 
est lights of the negative are white 
when viewed from the back. It is then 
washed for fifteen minutes and devel¬ 
oped in an M-Q, or similar developer, 
until only the highest lights remain 
white as viewed from the back. The 
negative is then rinsed and placed in 
Sodium thiosulphate (Hypo) 25 per 
cent., where it is allowed to remain 
until thoroughly fixed, then washed for 
an hour and dried. 
The main points in this process to 
which careful attention should be given 
are that the bleaching should be thor¬ 
ough and that development must be 
stopped at the point when the shadows 
are fully developed and the high-lights 
not yet fully developed as shown by 
their whiteness when viewed from the 
back. If by inspection, or on making 
a print, it is found that the values need 
still more correction the process may 
be repeated. Before this is done it is 
necessary to see that the negative is 
entirely free from hypo. 
The action which takes place during 
this process is that the undeveloped 
silver salt which is left on the high¬ 
lights is removed by the hypo, the den¬ 
sity of the high-lights being thus suffi¬ 
ciently reduced to allow them to print 
without over-exposing the shadows. 
HUNTING THE GRAY 
SQUIRREL 
(Continued from, page 491) 
the gun and fired expecting to kill them 
both, but one fell dead, and the other 
badly wounded, required the other 
barrel. The remaining four squirrels 
then rushed from the top of the tree 
down into the crotch where they hud¬ 
dled together so closely, that a hand¬ 
kerchief would have covered them. I 
could have killed them all at one shot, 
but alas! my gun was empty, and I 
thus lost the opportunity of a lifetime 
to make a record shot at squirrels, for 
the chance has never been repeated. 
As silently as a statue, I stood for a 
long time, while the squirrels watched 
me with their bright bead-like eyes, 
then their suspicions set at rest, they 
mounted the tree again and began 
cautiously feeding. Making as little 
noise as posible, I reloaded my gun, 
and with great good luck, made a 
deadly right and left on two of the 
squirrels, the remaining pair fleeing 
from the tree in dismay at the reports 
of the gun. 
It was now well along in the morn¬ 
ing, and I turned my steps toward 
home, again crossing the Stout farm. 
Following a cattle path that skirted 
the woodland in a brier grown field, I 
was passing a little swamp at the 
woods edge, where I have killed many a 
summer woodcock, when with a crash 
of briars and rustling of grass, some 
alarmed animal rushed from beside the 
path across the swamp. Then from a 
chestnut tree came the scratching 
sound of climbing claws, and I stood 
with the gun at “ready.” Cautiously 
around the tree trunk appeared a sharp 
snout and gleaming inquisitive eyes 
and at the report of the gun, an inert 
body fell with a thump to the ground, 
and I crashed through the briars, to 
find at the foot of the tree the body of 
a large mink, whose nearly coal black 
fur would have made a fine pelt later 
in the season. Returning to the path 
at the spot I had startled the mink, I 
carefully parted the grass, and there 
lay the still warm body of a half grown 
rabbit. A small puncture in its neck, 
marked the spot where the assassin had 
severed the jugular vein, and gorged 
himself on his victim’s blood. It gave 
me a warm glow of satisfaction to 
know, that vengeance had so soon over¬ 
taken this vile murderer of the wood¬ 
land innocents. 
Returning across the pasture fields, 
I made my way to Uncle William’s 
apple orchard, and here under a favor¬ 
ite “Summer Pearmaine,” tree, I made 
my hungry teeth meet in the rosy sides 
of one of those luscious apples. Takmg 
full toll of them, I passed on to another 
Page 511 
