[a]Fig. 34.]—The Ear Half-skinned.
It is likely that the beginner will find this a difficult operation, for it really is so until one has done at least one pair of ears. After that, with a fresh specimen, the process is simple and easy. Save the ear cartilage in your salt-and-alum bath, for you will need it presently as a model in making a leaden imitation to take its place.
9. The skin is now off. To preserve it in the field, first pare away the flesh that may have been left adhering to it, especially at the lips and end of the nose, and wash it clean. If you have arsenical soap, anoint it thoroughly over the inside, then literally smother it in salt. You need not dry the skin if you have plenty of salt for it. If you have but a limited quantity, attend to the poisoning to keep off insects, then rub on as much salt as you have to spare, hang the skin up in a shady place over a pole, open it out widely so that the air will circulate freely upon all parts of it, and let it dry. In a dry climate a skin can be dried in this way and successfully preserved (temporarily) even when you have neither poison nor preservative of any kind to put on it; but it must be watched and guarded with jealous care until you get it safely home, or in the hands of a taxidermist, to prevent its being eaten up by insects, rats, or dogs.
[a]Fig. 35.]—Skinning down the Inside. [a]Fig. 36.]—The Cartilage Out.
In moist climates, ground alum is to be used in lieu of salt, and all skins must be dried unless you have a salt-and-alum bath for them. In preserving heads, the sportsman will find that ten pounds of salt, or in the tropics ten pounds of alum, will go a long ways, if care is taken to keep a skin open until it is nearly dry. Never, save as a last resort, dry a skin in the sun, and never hang one up by the nose.
The Skull.—Of course the skull must always be cleaned and saved, as directed elsewhere.
Paring down the skin, preparatory to mounting. See Chapter XIII.
The Work of Mounting.—We will suppose that the head skin has been fully cured or relaxed in the salt-and-alum bath, pared down quite thin with draw-shave and knife, the holes have been neatly sewn up, and the ear cartilages skinned out. We will also suppose that the skull has been cleaned with the knife in the first place, and afterward boiled and scraped to remove the last vestiges of animal matter. If the skin and skull have been thus attended to, the mounted head will be clean enough and free enough from all animal odors, when dry, to go into my lady's boudoir, or into the dining-room of the White House.