Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

326 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTthen tan, and polish the outer side with a smoothoff ;but not hot iron.Fish Skins.—If you merely skin a fish, salt theskin or put it up in brine and ship it to a taxidermist,you will finally get from him a mounted thing,but it will be a mighty poor reminder of the beautythat you caught. Whoever mounts a fish shouldhave an exact replica of its body to use as a foundation.This can be made on the spot with plasterof Paris in a sand mold, as described in Pray'sTaxidermy (Outing Handbooks), provided youhave the plaster. Since very few anglers will beso equipped, it is best to preserve the fish itself, andship it to a taxidermist as soon as practicable. Mr.Pray has told, in RecreatioUj how to do this withcommon preservatives that can be procured in anyvillage:"To prepare a fish to ship a distance for mounting,^remove the entrails and red gills, slitting the bellyopen along the side to be against the panel whenmounted. When the 'innards' are out, peel up theskin toward the back carefully and score the meatdeeply lengthwise several times with a sharp knife,being careful not to cut through the skin on theoppositeside.Now rub plenty of borax (use no salt on a fish tobe mounted) into the head and belly and the knifecuts in the meat of the back and tail.Lastly, put a teaspoonful of carbolic acid (as youbuy it in the drug store) into a pint of water andwring a cloth out of this solution. Wrap the fishin this, laid out full length. Have enough cloth sothat several thicknesses of cloth cover the fish. (Iftwo or more fish are shipped together, wrap eachseparately in the damp cloth.) Wrap the whole atfull length in a piece of thin, cheap oil-cloth, packcarefully in a box and send by either parcel post orexpress. (Always lay the fish out in approximatepose in relation to each other that you would like inthe mount, so that you will open them on oppositesides, that they may hang front to front on thepanel.)Always send fish for mounting in the meat, neverskinned, as the ideal mounted fish is a cast portraitof itself with the skin skilfull}"- applied over it."