Practical taxidermy

by Montagu Browne

[CHAPTER VIII.
SKINNING, PRESERVING, AND MOUNTING FISH, AND CASTING FISHES IN PLASTER, etc..]

FISH being, perhaps, the most difficult things in the range of taxidermical science to set up in a satisfactory manner, I would impress upon the amateur to take particular note of their peculiarities of shape and colour, and to practise upon any easily-obtained and tough-skinned fish, such as the perch, which is, indeed, one of the best of all subjects for the purpose.

However, as I have now before me a pike of over 11 lb., I will take it to illustrate this lesson.

Provide yourself first with skinning knives (see Figs. 11-13) and a tool previously figured, which I call the undercutting knife or scraper (see Fig. 29). It is best made by an artisan, but may be roughly fashioned by beating out a square piece of steel (a worn-out, narrow, flat or square file will furnish this), while hot, to a flat surface at one end, turning it at right angles for about an inch, and filing each side of this return, as also the point (the latter previously rounded) to a cutting edge, and afterwards giving it the requisite hardness by "tempering" it in oil. Many tools used by the gun stockers are to be bought ready made, which will fulfil all the requirements of this tool, but it is so easily made that I consider anyone with the least mechanical ability should be able to make one. The object of this tool is to run in under bones and to cut and drag out pieces of flesh through small openings.

Measurements being taken and a board provided on which to trace the outline, select the best side of the fish — by which I mean the side most free from bruises or "gaff" marks. Cover this with thin paper (cap paper) or muslin, which readily adheres by the natural mucus peculiar to fish. This process, it will be seen, keeps the scales fast in their seats during the operation of skinning, and gives also a "set," as it were, to the skin. The fins and tail must not, however, be allowed to dry until the fish is finished. To avoid this and the consequent splitting of these members, keep them constantly damped by wet cloths or tow wrapped around them.

Lay the worst side uppermost, and then cut the skin from head to tail in a straight line. A mark called the subdorsal or lateral line is an excellent guide for this. With a strong pair of scissors, — or rather shears, cut through the scapular arch (the large bone beneath the gills — see Fig. 34, A). Slip the knife under the edges of the cut skin, and lift the skin the whole of the way up at about an inch in on both sides of the cut. Having carefully separated this from the flesh, take the broad knife in your hand, and, holding the skin lightly in the middle, with a scraping motion of the knife on the skin free it from the flesh. If the knife is held in a proper manner, slanting inward towards you, this will be done very easily. Take care, however, when approaching the fins not to cut outward too much, or you will rip them out of the skin. Fig. 34 shows the point where we have arrived, B being the loosened skin and C the flesh denuded of that skin.

Fig. 34 — Diagram of pike, showing skin removed on one side from lower half of body.

Skin out the remaining part up to the back, holding the knife in the same manner; the fish is now half way skinned, and holding only by the fins. Slip the scissors carefully underneath the bones of each fin and cut them away from the inside. Do not be afraid of leaving a little flesh attached, as this can be easily cut away from the inter-spinous bones afterwards, it being better to have too much flesh attached to them than to find you have cut the skin through on the other side. It is a matter of little importance as to which fin you cut away first; but let me assume that you begin at the under anal fin, and, having cut this away carefully, you now find that it is still held at a little distance above it by. the orifice of the vent. A great deal of care is required here to cut the attachment away so as not to pierce through to the outside; a piece of wool comes in very handily to push in, to stop the flow of blood, etc..

Now turn your attention to the only fin on a pike's back, the second or lower dorsal one, which cut away in the same careful manner as before. Working down toward the tail, get the broad knife as much underneath as you can, and then push the fingers underneath until they meet, and thus gradually free the flesh from the skin almost up to the extreme end of the caudal fin (or tail). Insert the point of the large shears underneath, and cut the bone and flesh completely through at a distance of about 1 in. from the last joint of the vertebrae at the tail; this leaves a little flesh attached to be subsequently cleared out.