er of Paris with
glue-water, and finally coloured; or dry plaster may be mixed with
thick oil paint as a "priming" medium.

"Virgin" cork is the latest rockwork model. Its shape being irregular,
it is well suited to imitate craggy rocks, added to which it takes
thick colour or whiting well, glued or unglued.

Nothing, however, beats a mixture of all methods--paper, peat, and
cork, their lines broken up or blended with wadding. The whole of
this, well glued, sanded, and properly coloured, will defy the most
critical unprofessional judgment to declare it anything but what it
seems--hard rock.

I am speaking, of course, of small cases; large work requires
consideration. Peat will not do for anything but the illustration of
small subjects. It is too heavy, and does not readily adapt itself to
imitate large masses of overhanging rock; added to which, its expense
in large quantities is very great. It is also dirty to work with, and
is often a harbour for larvae of various moths--inimical to the
taxidermist. I so recognised all these facts in the treatment of the
rockwork in the Leicester Museum, that I determined to use paper only,
treating it by an old method, artistically elaborated.

This method was, after making a rough drawing and calculation as to
the positions the specimens would occupy in the case, to nail strips
of "quartering" across the backs of the cases, to which again were
nailed strips of 0.75 in. wood, crossing in all directions, but
especially where the drawings indicated a mass of rock. On these, and
to these, small shelves of wood were nailed in the positions to be
subsequently occupied by the specimens. To these shelves cardboard was
tacked, and bent upward and downward to the pointed or square shapes
assumed by the rocks modelled from. [Footnote: It is quite necessary
in artistic modelling not only to have coloured drawings of the rocks
you are imitating, but to have an actual piece by you as a little
guide to form and colour.] Where the edges were too sharp they were
beaten in by a mallet, or altered by glueing on wadding.

The mass of rock being joined here and there to break up the
appearance of shelves, and to give a certain homogeneity, was then
treated by having brown paper well glued on both sides, stuck all over
the edges, joins, or accidental fissures; this, suffered to dry, was
then well painted with a mixture of whiting and glue-water, again
allowed to dry, and again painted. When this la