Shifts and expedients of camp life, travel & exploration

by William Barry Lord; Thomas Baines

Preserving and packing.

Previous to skinning a small mammal or bird make a note of the colour of its eyes and soft parts, and, if time admits, of the dimensions of its trunk and limbs. It facilitates skinning of birds to break, before commencing, the first bone of the wings a short distance above the joint, which causes the members to lie open when the specimen is laid on its back on the skinning board. The animal should be laid with its tail towards the right hand of the operator, and the incision made from the breast bone nearly to the anus. A blunt wooden style is useful in commencing the operation of separating the skin from the flesh. When the leg is reached, cut through the knee joint, and then clear the flesh from the shank as far as can be done, afterwards washing the bone slightly with arsenical soap, winding a thin slip of cotton round it, and returning it to the skin. Repeat the process with the other leg, and then sever with the broad-bladed scissors the spine above the root of the tail. By carefully cutting into the flesh from above the spine is finally severed without injuring the skin of the back, and it is then easy to continue the skinning up to the wings, when the bones are cut through at the place where they had previously been broken, and the body finished as far as the commencement of the skull. A small piece of the skull is now cut away, together with the neck and body, and the brains and eyes are scooped out, the inside washed with soap, and clean cotton filled in, the eyes especially being made plump. In large headed parrots, woodpeckers, and some other birds, the head cannot thus be cleansed; an incision has therefore to be made either on one side or on the back of the neck, through which the back of the skull can be thrust a little way and then cleansed, the incision being afterwards closed by two or three stitches. The bones then remaining in each wing must be cleansed, but so as not to loosen the quill feathers. It is much better to take out the flesh by making an incision on the outside of the skin along the flesh on the inner side of the wing. The inside of the skin must now be washed with the soap, and a neck of cotton (not too thick) inserted by means of long narrow forceps, taking care to fix the end well inside the skull, and withdrawing the empty forceps without stretching the skin of the neck and thus distorting the shape of the bird. Skins need not be filled up with cotton or any other material, but laid with the feathers smoothed down on the boards of the drying cage until they are ready to be packed in boxes. In very humid climates like that of Tropical America, oxide of arsenic in powder is preferable to arsenical soap, on account of the skins drying quicker, but it cannot be recommended to the general traveller, owing to the danger attending its use.

In mammals the tail offers some difficulty to a beginner. To skin it, the root (after severing it from the spine) should be secured by a piece of strong twine, which should then be attached to a nail or beam. With two pieces of flat wood (one placed on each side of the naked root) held firmly by the hand and pulled downwards, the skin is made rapidly to give way generally to the tip. The tails of some animals, however, can be skinned only by incisions made down the middle from the outside. The larger mammal skins may be inverted, and, after washing with soap, dried in the sun; and, as before remarked, it is often necessary to roll them up and preserve in spirits. The skins of small mammals and birds, after they are quite dry, may be packed in boxes, which must be previously well washed inside with arsenical soap, lined with paper, and again covered with a coating of the soap, and well dried in the sun. This is the very best means of securing the specimens from the attacks of noxious insects, which so often, to the great disgust of the traveller, destroy what he has taken so much pains to secure. Where wood is scarce, as in the interior of Africa, boxes may be made of the skins of antelopes, or other large animals, by stretching them when newly stripped from the animal over a square framework of sticks, and sewing up the edges after being dried in the sun; they make excellent packing-cases. With regard to reptiles and fishes, I cannot do better than quote the following remarks sent to me by Mr. Osbert Salvin, who collected these animals most successfully in Guatemala:—"Almost any spirit will answer for this purpose, its fitness consisting in the amount of alcohol contained in it. In all cases it is best to procure the strongest, being less bulky, and the water can always be obtained to reduce the strength to the requisite amount. When the spirit sold retail by natives is not sufficiently strong, by visiting the distillery the traveller can often obtain the first runnings (the strongest) of the still, which will be stronger than he requires undiluted. The spirit used should be reduced to about proof, and the traveller should always be provided with an alcoholometer. If this is not at hand, a little practice will enable him to ascertain the strength of the spirit from the rapidity with which the bubbles break when rising to the surface of a small quantity shaken in a bottle. When the spirit has been used, this test is of no value. When animals or fish are first immersed, it will be found that the spirit becomes rapidly weaker. Large specimens absorb the alcohol very speedily. The rapidity with which this absorption takes place should be carefully watched, and in warm climates the liquid tested at least every twelve hours, and fresh spirit added to restore it to its original strength. In colder climates it is not requisite to watch so closely, but practice will show what attention is necessary. It will be found that absorption of alcohol will be about proportionate to the rate of decomposition. Spirit should not be used too strong, as its effect is to contract the outer surface, and thus closing the pores prevent the alcohol from penetrating through to the inner parts of the specimen. The principal point, then, is to watch that the strength of the spirit does not get below a certain point while the specimen is absorbing alcohol when first put in. It will be found that after two or three days the spirit retains its strength; when this is the case, the specimen will be perfectly preserved. Spirit should not be thrown away, no matter how often used, so long as the traveller has a reserve sufficient to bring it back to its requisite strength. In selecting specimens for immersion, regard must be had to the means at the traveller’s disposal. Fish up to 9in. long may be placed in spirit with simply a slit cut to allow the spirit to enter to the entrails. With larger specimens it is better to pass a long knife outside the ribs, so as to separate the muscles on each side of the vertebra. It is also as well to remove as much food from the entrails as possible, taking care to leave all these in. The larger specimens can be skinned, leaving, however, the intestines in, and simply removing the flesh; very large specimens preserved in this way absorb very little spirit. All half-digested food should be removed from snakes and animals. In spite of these precautions specimens will often appear to be decomposing, but by more constant attention to re-strengthening the spirit they will in most cases be preserved. A case (copper is best) with a top that can be unscrewed and refixed easily, should always be carried as a receptacle; the opening should be large enough to allow the hand to be inserted. This is to hold freshly caught specimens. When they have become preserved they can all be removed and soldered up in tin or zinc boxes; zinc is best, as it does not corrode so easily. The traveller will find it very convenient to take lessons in soldering, and so make his own boxes. (For directions for soldering, see [p. 210] of this work.) If he takes them ready made they had best be arranged so as to fit one into another before they are filled. When moving about, all specimens should be wrapped in calico, linen, or other rags, to prevent their rubbing one against the other. This should also be done to the specimens in the copper case when a move is necessary, as well as to those finally packed for transportation to Europe. These last should have all their interstices between the specimens filled in with cotton wool or rags. If a leak should occur in a case, specimens thus packed will still be maintained moist, and will keep some time without much injury. Proof spirit should be used when the specimens are finally packed, but it is not necessary that it should be fresh. Land and fresh-water shells, on reaching camp, should be placed in a basin of cold water to entice the animals out, and then, after draining off, killed by pouring boiling water over them. They may be cleansed of flesh by means of a strong pin or penknife. The operculum or mouthpiece of all shells which possess it should be preserved and placed inside the empty shell. Each shell when dry should be wrapped in a piece of paper and the collection packed in a box well padded with cotton or other dry and elastic material.

“The insects collected on an excursion should be attended to immediately on arrival in camp. When leisure and space are limited all the hard-bodied ones may be put in bottles of spirit, and each bottle when nearly full should be filled up to the cork with a piece of rag, to prevent injury from shaking. Many species, however, become stained by spirit, and it is far better in dry countries, such as Africa, Australia, and Central Asia, to preserve all the hard bodied ones in a dry state in pill boxes. They are killed whilst in the collecting bottles by plunging for a few minutes the bottom half of the bottles in hot water. An hour afterwards the contents are shaken out over blotting paper and put into pill boxes, the bottoms of the boxes being padded with cotton, over which is placed a circular piece of blotting paper. The open pill boxes should then be placed in the drying cage for a day or two, and then filled up with more cotton, the layer of insects being first covered with a circular piece of paper.[C] The soft bodied specimens which are brought home pinned, should be stuck in the drying cage until they are dry, and then pinned very close together in the store boxes. The store boxes both bottom and sides should each have inside a coating of arsenical soap before they are corked, and as they become filled one by one should be washed outside with the soap and pasted all over with paper. Camphor and other preservatives are of little or no use in tropical climates. In some countries where the traveller may wish to make a collection of the butterfly fauna, the best way is to preserve all the specimens in little paper envelopes. He should be careful not to press the insects too flat, simply killing them by pressure underneath the breast, folding their wings carefully backwards and slipping them each into its envelope. In very humid tropical countries, such as the river valleys of tropical America and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the plan of stowing away even hard-bodied insects in pill boxes does not answer on account of the mould with which they soon become covered. There are, then, only two methods that can be adopted; one, preserving them at once in spirits, the other, pinning all those over a quarter of an inch long (running the pin through the right wing case, so as to come out beneath between the second and third pair of legs), and gumming those of smaller size on small sheets of card, cut of uniform size, so as to fit perpendicularly in racked boxes like those used to contain microscopical slides but larger. The cards may be a few inches square, and each may hold several scores of specimens very lightly gummed down a short distance apart. After the cards are filled they should be well dried, and the box containing them washed outside with arsenical soap, and pasted over with paper. All the pinned specimens should be placed to dry for a few days in the drying cage, and afterwards pinned very close together in the cork store boxes.

“Plants are dried by pressure, by means of the boards and straps, between sheets of botanical drying paper, the paper requiring to be changed three or four times. When dry the specimens may be placed between sheets of old newspapers, together with notes the traveller may have made upon them, each placed upon the object to which it refers. Bundles of papers containing plants are not of difficult carriage, but they require to be guarded against wet, especially in fording rivers and in rainy weather, and should be wrapped in skins or India rubber sheeting until they can be safely packed in wooden boxes and despatched to Europe.

“Seeds may be collected when quite ripe, and preserved in small packets of botanical paper with numbers written on them, referring to preserved specimens of the flowers.

“Dry fruits and capsules should be collected when in countries not previously explored by botanists, if the traveller has means of identifying the species to which they belong.

“The collection of fossils and minerals, except in the case of the discovery of new localities for valuable metals, is not to be recommended to the traveller if he is not a geologist. Fossils from an unexplored country are of little use unless the nature and order of superposition of the strata in which they are found can be at the same time investigated. In the cases, however, of recent alluvial strata on the supposed beds of ancient lakes, or deposits in caves, or raised sea beaches containing shells or bones of vertebrate animals, the traveller will do well to bring away specimens if a good opportunity offers. If the plan of the expedition includes the collection of fossil remains, the traveller will of course provide himself with a proper geological outfit and obtain the necessary instructions before leaving Europe.”

Whilst engaged in collecting the beautifully formed and delicate shells found adhering to the minute asperities formed by the process of disintegration on the roofs of the crypts formed by the ancient Tauro-Scythian tribes, we proceeded as follows: After the discovery of an almost crystalline specimen we prepared a soft bed for its reception by arranging in nest form a very soft silk handkerchief in our well worn forage cap, the gold band of which served as a sort of hoop of support. Thus arranged, the nest was held exactly under the fossil shell, which was in most cases freed from its attachments by a single sharp and well directed blow from our pick head on the heel of a sharp well-tempered steel chisel (old files make the best). As the specimens were one by one taken from the cap-nest they were arranged carefully layer after layer in old preserved meat tins, bran being liberally sprinkled in over each distinct layer of shells. On the tin being nearly filled, more bran was added until the packing was firm and complete, the round tin cover was then forced in until about a quarter of an inch from the upper rim of the tin. A few cuts here and there in the tin with a pair of cutting nippers admitted of the turning in of a number of clip pieces by bending the cut tin in elbow form over the cover. These tins when duly numbered and noted were packed in a sixty-gallon barrel with fine soft hay made from steppe grass. The collections thus packed reached England in a perfect state of preservation.

In situations where old preserved meat tins cannot be obtained, large joints of bamboo, or the thin earthen pots used by natives, might be made available for depositing very fragile specimens in. Fine sawdust will answer nearly as well as bran for packing powder; rotten wood from an old decaying log may be rubbed between the hands into fine dust, and made use of for the same purpose. “All collections made in tropical countries should be sent to Europe with the least possible delay, as they soon become deteriorated or spoilt, unless great care is bestowed on them. Dry skins of animals and birds may be packed in wooden cases, simply with sheets of paper to separate the skins. Shells and skulls should be provided with abundance of elastic padding, such as cotton. The boxes containing insects and crustacea should be placed in the middle of large boxes, surrounded by an ample bed of hay, or other light, dry, elastic material; if this last point be not carefully attended to, it will be doubtful whether such collections will sustain a voyage without much injury. Travellers have excellent opportunities of observing the habits of animals in a state of nature, and these hints would be very deficient were not a few words said upon this subject. To know what to observe in the economy of animals is in itself an accomplishment, which it would be unreasonable to expect the general traveller to possess, and without this he may bring home only insignificant details, contributing but little to our stock of knowledge. One general rule, however, may be kept always present to the mind, and this is that anything concerning animals which bears upon the relations of species to their conditions of life is well worth obtaining and recording. Thus, it is important to note the various enemies which each species has to contend with, not only at one epoch in its life, but at every stage from birth to death, and at different seasons and in different localities; the way in which the existence of enemies limits the range of a species should be also noticed. The inorganic influences which inimically affect species, especially intermittently (such as the occurrence of disastrous seasons), and which are likely to operate in limiting their ranges, are also important subjects of inquiry. The migrations of animals, and especially any parts where the irruption of species into districts previously uninhabited by them, are well worth recording. The food of each species should be noticed; and if any change of customary food is observed, owing to the failure of the supply, it should be carefully recorded. The use in nature of any peculiar physical conformation of animals, the object of ornamentation, and so forth, should be also investigated wherever opportunity occurs. Any facts relating to the interbreeding in a state of nature of allied varieties or the converse—that is, the antipathy to intermingling of allied varieties—would be extremely interesting. In short, the traveller should bear in mind that facts having a philosophical bearing are much more important than mere anecdotes about animals. To observe the actions of the larger animals a telescope or opera-glass will be necessary, and the traveller should bear in mind, if a microscope is needed in his journey, that, by reversing the tubes of the telescope, in which all the small glasses are contained, a compound microscope of considerable power is produced.”