ast alarming, for we
feared that the humidity secreted in the skin might concentrate in
such a manner (notwithstanding we had taken the precaution to give the
wooden model a coat of oil paint) as to occasion mouldiness in the
parts exposed to the air. The alum with which it was saturated soon
crystallised on the interior, which at first gave it a very ugly grey
colour; but we entirely got rid of it by rubbing the surface of the
skin, first with spirits of turpentine, and then with oil of olives."

Some little hints which occurred to me as being useful to the animal
mounter I will now jot down: I have been frequently asked, "Supposing
I get a fat dog, or animal of any kind, to set up, how can I manage
such a subject satisfactorily? If I leave the fat on the skin I am
doing wrong in every way, and if I trim it cleanly off, as it should
be done, I stretch the skin to such an extent that my dog is
completely out of shape, and though formerly a 'pug' he speedily
becomes a 'greyhound.' In fact, I am in a quandary, and do not know
what to do."

My reply is: Try what a hot knife will do passed over the skin, with
sand or sawdust thrown on to absorb the fat as it melts off. Candidly
speaking, however, it is purely a matter of experience to trim fat off
a skin without stretching it to any alarming degree, and in very
fine-skinned animals, if we find them stretch in spite of all care, we
take advantage of wrinkles to sew up here and tuck in there, resorting
even, in extreme cases, to cutting away portions of the skin, notably
in those parts underneath, hidden by the subsequent operation of
mounting.

The skin of the soles of the feet of some animals requires paring
down. The bear is an instance of this. The hands of monkeys also must
be carefully skinned out to the extreme tips of the fingers. These
latter animals are best skinned out from the back, as a great many of
our "relatives" have but little hair on the abdomen to hide the
stitches, added to which their usually upright position tends still
more to show up any defect in sewing.

Peat and straw may sometimes be used with advantage in the bodies of
large animals.

Moles may be very well mounted by being cut across from one hind limb
to the other, just under the tail, skinned out, preserved, and the
skin then filled with sand or dry plaster.

Hedgehogs, if required to be curled up, may be also filled with sand,
then tied up in a cloth, and hung up to dry.

Bats are s