[CHAPTER XIX.]
MOUNTING MAMMAL HEADS AS TROPHIES AND ORNAMENTS.
Sportsmen, if you really must kill all the large mammalia from off the face of the earth, do at least preserve the heads that are brought low by your skill and prowess. Now that our elk, moose, deer, caribou, antelope, mountain sheep, and mountain goat are all disappearing so rapidly, and nearly all these species are doomed to speedy extermination, head collecting has become quite the fashion. There are in this country probably two score of taxidermists who live by heads alone; and many hunters who once lived by buffalo robes and beaver pelts now make a business of hunting for heads to sell. I know many such, and their scale of prices for heads, according to size and "points," shows that they have got the business "down fine."
And why should not heads be collected and made much of, as well as pelts and meat? A naturally handsome mammal head which has been skilfully mounted is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Wearied with the survey of inane and meaningless pictures, stiff portraits, cheap statuettes, and tawdry fancy decorations, the eye rests gladly and gratefully upon a fine head on a handsome shield, hanging in a good light, and blesses the hand that placed it there. Such an ornament calls forth endless admiration and query, even from those who know no other chase than that of the mighty dollar, and who, alas! have never found out by experience that
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods."
And therefore I say, if you must go and kill things, save their heads and mount them as an atonement for your deeds of blood. They will give pleasure to you and your friends long after you have hung up your rifle forever. I have gathered numerous curiosities and works of art in foreign lands, but they do not excite one-half the admiration that is called forth by the series of really fine heads of buffalo, deer, mountain sheep, elk, antelope, and mountain goat of which I am the fortunate possessor.
Inasmuch as this chapter is intended chiefly for the benefit of sportsmen and amateur taxidermists, we must begin at the beginning, and treat the subject in somewhat full detail. We will consider that we have a deer as our subject.
Many a fine deer head is spoiled forever by being cut off too close behind the ears. With such animals as the lion, tiger, leopard, puma, and bear, a long neck is not desirable unless the head is to be mounted in a glass case, looking out of a thicket; and neither is it best for a buffalo head to have a long neck. It may be set down as a safe rule, however, that the heads of all deer, antelopes, sheep, goats, and the like, should have moderately long necks. Having experimented fully with necks of all lengths, I find that the most satisfactory to competent critics, and therefore the handsomest, are those which strike a happy medium, such as the antelope head shown in Plate XI. To secure this length, the head should be cut off well back toward the shoulders, so as to leave a little surplus to be trimmed off when the head is mounted.
To Skin and Preserve a Deer Head, proceed as follows:
1. Start at the back of the neck (on top) just in front of the shoulders, or "withers," keep the point of the knife under the skin, with the edge up, and divide the skin in a circle all the way around the neck, keeping down to the point where the neck sets on the shoulders. You need not cut through the flesh and bone of the neck at that point.