Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-16

lMZMA the Smithsonian institution
| IH HESi and the National museum.
| lE fsEI The more than 5000 verte-
| IEA Nj brates collected by the
l&sseszzN velt-Smithsonian Afri-
can expedition are arriving, and there
| is much activity in the preparation,
classification and cataloging of this
| great collection. About half of the
| big mammals, half of the birds and q
third OF the small mammals have ar
rived. The others are on their way,
coming in several separate consign-
ments, and are expected to arrive with
| in the next month.
In a little room in the National mu-
scum building are collected the skulls
of the mammals that have arrived, and
| one who sees them might we'll imagine
| that a Noah's ark of African animal
| life had perished and the skulls of the
| animals gathered together in this
room. Skulls great and skulls small,
skulls with long horns and skulls with
short horns, skulls of every kind, stare
at one from every angle. In front are
fourteen skulls of giant rhinos, some of
them showing well placed shots that
| tell of a head-on charge and unerring
| aim. To the rear are skulls Of hippos
/ and elephants. To the left are the
snarling heads of huge African lions,
seeming so small in comparison with
those of the rhinos and hippos that one
| forgets they belong to the mighty
king of beasts, on the right are
skulls of waterbucks, impalas. harte-
beests, gazelles, Glands, klippespring-
ers, giaraffes, dik-diks and other
strange and curious animals.
The authorities have a problem that
is causing them no little worry. The
beautiful teeth of the carnivorOus ami
| 1e. ,f hn l,f1a ntl n M
are shattering to pieces in the dry
steam heated atmosphere of the mu-
scum building. A few days ago while
the workmen were engaged in the task
of preparing the skulls one of the giant
front teeth, of big hippo skull burst
asunder with a report. and one piece
was hurled halfway across the room
The big. fiesh-tearing teeth of the
lions are splitting into little splinters.
What causes it no one fully under
stands, but it seems that there is
difference In porosity in the interior
and exterior of tho teeth, and that the
uneven drying out results in their
shattering. An experiment is being
made toward checking it, The larger
teeth are to be soaked in hot paraftine
in the hope that they will absorb
enough of the oil to stop the splinter
inc process
There is a large collection of small
mammal skulls. hundreds of them be-
Ing so small that they are packed away
in little troad-nccked bottles of from
two to four tablespoon capacity. Eaeh
one has it's little tag, telling where 1t
was found, who prepared it and all 9TH
er data necessary to its complete iden-
tifiCation. When the skeletons are
shipped it is the usual practice to leave
as much flesh on the bones as will dry
out. This is to protect the delicate
little homes from injury in transit. Az
ter the skeletons arrive they are sub
iected to a boiling process, so that this
dried flesh may be taken off.
The skins are all arriving in good
shape Heller who had charge of their
packing, is an expert. They are all
packed in brine and placed in sealed
casks. Not a single skin has been in
jured in transit The expedition had
hard work getting assistants for the
skinning of the big mammals. The ma
tives are usually slow and lazy. At last
a group of men from a raw-flesh eating
tribe was gathered together, and their
anxiety to get the daintiest morsels
served to make them hustling work
men They keep their teeth filed sharp
and eat the flesh While yet it quiVerS.
The Smithsonian is deluged with in
quiries as to how soon the collection
will be placed on pubic eXnlDlIlOn. Inc
reply is that the work of preparing the
exhibits has begun, some of the skins
already having been sent to the tan
neries, but that it will be matter of
years unit. it is completed. When it Is
stated that it may take as long as six
months TO mount a single large man.
NAL, it is plain thta to prepare q whole
group of exhibits will take years.
The process by which mounting is
accomplished is an interesting one.
First. the naturalist sculptor makes a
little model of the animal he proposes
to mount 1t is usually on scale of
about one to eighteen. After he gets
his model to suit him, in pose and de-
tail he submits it to others for crit
icism and suggestion. After the mod
q has been worked up to the satisfac-
ton of the responsible authorities, the
task of making a life sized form is
begun, wood and paper being used
principally. When this is completed,
the placing of the skin on the model
is but a small undertaking. To con-
struct a great group like the famous
bison group in the National museum,
with all the accompanying natural set
tings. is a task that requires infinite
patience and much ability. This bison
group is regarded as one of the finest
mounted animal groups in the world.