Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting. W. J. Holland

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      I think I may say without boasting that on my third collecting trip abroad (to the East Indies) my outfit came as near perfection in size and arrangement as can ever be reached without far greater expense than that entailed. I was obliged to pack and unpack the whole of it at least fifty times, but its arrangement was so systematic and compact that the complete packing up never required more than fifteen minutes, and I could go to it in the dark and find any article desired, even to a needle and thread.

      The whole arrangement was very simple. To start with, the entire outfit of firearms, ammunition, tools, hunting-gear, and a good stock of preservatives was contained in an iron-bound black walnut chest about the size of a carpenter's tool-chest.

      To keep my loading implements and ammunition in order, I had an ammunition-box of walnut, 14–½ inches long, 12–½ wide, and 4–½ deep, outside measurements, divided inside into five compartments, which held and kept in order all the appendages belonging to my three guns, and enough ammunition to last a month for ordinary shooting.

      Another small box, made of ash, one-quarter of an inch thick, and divided into four compartments, contained an assortment of knives, labels, and small tools (see list below), and was in every way multum in parvo. Both these boxes had their places in the chest, and my guns, each in its own box-case, were provided for in the same receptacle. I have had made for collectors going out from the National Museum nearly a dozen tool-boxes in exact duplication of the original mentioned above, and I can confidently recommend both it and the ammunition-box as serving their purposes most satisfactorily.

      Since my outfit for the East Indies proved very satisfactory, and with one or two additions is precisely what I should take were I to go again on a similar expedition, I give below a full list of its contents. The additions I should make would be a Winchester 7-shot repeating rifle, calibre 45–75, with the necessary ammunition, a double-barrelled breech-loading gun, No. 12, and possibly a wooden tank 2 feet × 2 feet × 2 feet, with a screw top, for the preservation of mammal skins in a salt and alum bath. This last addition is rendered necessary by the fact that I have adopted a different method of preserving skins from that I had followed up to that time. Instead of drying all skins as I did then, I now preserve the majority of them in a wet state, and keep them so, except such as are desired as skins for study, and not for mounting. The apparatus necessary for collecting insects will be described in the section devoted to work of that class.

      Outfit for General Collecting,

      Vertebrates and Invertebrates, both Large and Small, Dry and in Spirits, and on a Large Scale.

1 Agassiz tank (copper), in wooden box, for alcoholics.
1 chest of black walnut, iron-bound, to contain all the articles enumerated below:
1 Maynard rifle, two barrels, calibre 40,	40 pounds shot, assorted sizes.
and 45–85.	10 pounds Maynard bullets.
1 double-barrelled breech-loading smooth-bore 1,000 Berdan primers.
gun, No. 10, in case ($30).	12 pounds Orange ducking powder.
1 Maynard shot-gun, No. 16.	30 pounds arsenical soap.
1 Smith & Wesson revolver, cal. 32.	15 pounds dry arsenic.
1 cartridge-belt and cartridge-bag.	1 dozen large skinning-knives.
1 dozen small skinning-knives.	2 pairs scissors.
6 scalpels.	1 brain hook.
2 claw hatchets.	1 pair long forceps.
1 saw.	1 pair short forceps.
1 large skin scraper.	1 pair cutting-pliers.
1 geological hammer.	1 pair flat pliers.
1 bull's-eye lantern.	2 sets skeleton-scrapers.
1 A No. 1 field-glass.	1 small skin scraper.
1 compass.	1 flat file.
2 brushes for arsenical soap.	2 three-cornered files.
1 blow-pipe and set of egg-drills.	1 cold chisel.
1 hydrometer and test-glass.	2 awls.
1 thermometer.	1 4-inch saw (for turtles).
2 pairs hunting-shoes.	1 tape measure.
2 rubber blankets.	1 2-foot rule.
1 double woollen blanket.	1 ivory thimble.
1 Ashanti hammock.	1 oil-stone.
3,000 labels, three sizes.	1 spool thread.
1 tool-box, size 7 × 13 × 3 inches, to contain the following: 2 dozen labels.
4 skinning-knives.	3 papers glover's needles.

      With this outfit I collected, in two years, more than $15,000 worth of salable skins, rough skeletons and skulls of mammals, many of which were very large; birds, reptiles, and fishes, especially the large and important species; also fishes and fish skins in alcohol and brine; crustaceans, shells, star-fishes, corals, and a few insects. In not a single case did I ever fail to collect a desired specimen through lack of implements and preservatives with which to care for it, and only three or four specimens spoiled on my hands in course of preservation. One of these was an orang skin, the last one I took, which spoiled because I had to pack it up and travel with it without giving it even one day's drying; and the others were skins which spoiled while I was on my back with jungle fever.

      The outfit listed above is of such a nature that for a trip across Africa, South America, or even a much shorter distance on foot or horseback, away from rivers and wagon-roads, it would be difficult to take the whole of it. But then, on some expeditions, for example, such as are made through Darkest Africa, the travellers are generally glad to get through with their СКАЧАТЬ