The Art of the Taxidermist

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 10, 9 March 1910, Page 33

The Art of the Taxidermist

Some Recent Remarkable Taxidermic Feats —Difficulties of the Work,

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JAMES FURNIVAL.

IT is no exaggeration to say that the work of the modern taxidermist does not receive that favour among the artistic profession it deserves. Painters and sculptors are apt to class taxidermy with the trades, whereas the successful mounter of animals may be described as a painter, sculptor, modeller, carpenter and blacksmith all in one. Curiously enough, the art—for taxidermy is an art—has been severely taxed of late; both in Europe and America a number of rare, large animals have received the attention of the taxidermists, and an inspection and description of their work undoubtedly revals the faet that the mounting of the bigger beasts is one which only qualified men can undertake with any degree of success. Take, for instance, the ease of the gigantic rhinoceros recently added to the National Museum at Washington. It represents the work of Mr. David N. McCadden, chief taxidermist of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. When alive, the great animal weighed three tons. It took a truck and four horses to bring him from the zoo to the academy, where die was at once attacked by the taxidermists and skinned. Pete, for that was the animal’s name, died of cancer at the Philadelphia Zoo, and, as he was the largest rhinoceros in captivity in the United States, if not in the world, it was decided that his skin should be preserved in the National Museum. It took more than two weeks to skin the great animal, gallons of embalming fluid being injected into the veins in the meantime to preserve the mass of flesh from decomposition. The hide of the monster was found in places to be three inches in thickness, requiring the combined strength of six men, with a number of mechanical contrivances, to disengage it from the flesh. Only by cutting the skin in three sections could it be removed. It was then sent to one of the largest tanneries in Philadelphia; the process of tanning occupied two months, as many as fifty men handling it at different stages. Before the animal was skinned Mr. McCadden took over a hundred measurements of the body, which were carefully

recorded for future reference. The bones, with as little muscle on them as possible, were placed in a large tank containing pure water, where they were left for months to macerate, coming out as pure and white as ivory. The hind legs of the animal measured each six feet in length, and weighed 100 pounds. The real labour in connection with the mounting of the rhinoceros was that involved in building a suitable framework, or “manikin,” to receive the skin. To accomplish this a large iron framework was forged and bolted to a stout' plat-

form; around the ironwork was built a wooden skeleton, conforming roughtly to the general shape of the rhinoceros. This, when completed, was padded with excelsior and tightly wound round with biass wire. On t'op of the excelsior was laid a thick layer of modelling elay. This latter was a close copy of the real animal, on a slightly smaller scale, to ensure a perfect' fit of the huge skin. Some 500 pounds of iron, 250 square feet of timber, 300 pounds of excelsior, and 800 pounds of modelling clay were requisitioned to complete the structure. When dry the skin weighed about 800 pounds, making a total of 2400 pounds, or probably, with the addition of other material not counted in, a trifle over a ton and a-half. When the skin was stretched and stitched on the clay model the task was by no means finished. The stuffed animal did not have the appearance of the animal in real life. A papier-mache tusk was made, as Pete had rubbed his own off on the iron bars of his cage. The ears, which drooped, were stretched into proper shape, and given a forward alert ncss by means of thin sheets of lead inserted from the inside. Finally, the -body was tinted with several coats of filler, and ten pounds of pigment afterwards applied. The work occupied exactly nine months, and many experts expressed surprise at the quickness with which the contract had been carried out. Yet it must not be forgotten that only one animal was treated, nor was there any attempt to produce any particular pose, but just a life-like presentation of how the rhinoceros appeared when alive. Supposing it had been decided to mount a group of those animals, say two full-grown ones and a baby, with a pretty natural background in the way of a river’s bank. It’ is not difficult to see that the labour would have been prodigious, and instead of nine months we should probably find the taxidermist as busy as ever after the lapse of twice that period. Indeed, Mr. W. T. Hornaday, the director of the Bronx Park in New York, which can claim the distinction of being the largest zoological garden in the world, has frequently spent from two to three years on one single set-piece. He was one of the first of modern taxidermists to ■mount large animals in [groups, and when he decided t'o superintend the erection of the great zoological park in New York the taxidermic profession lost one of its greatest masters. It is not necessary to go to the American museums to see artistic specimens of the taxidermist’s art. You can see them at our own great museums and in private collections. The Hon. Walter Rothschild, admitted to be one of the greatest zoologists of the present day. has several fine examples of taxidermy work in his museum at Tring. One of the most interesting, perhaps, to the ordinary visitor is the magnificent mounted gorilla, the largest ever shot. It is

without question the finest' mounted specimen of the big ape in Europe. This giant beast was shot in Central Africa by a German hunter, Mr. H. Paschen. \\ hile shooting in Yaunde, in the C'ameroons, a German possession in Equatorial West Africa, he was informed by several natives of Tsonu-town that a “big monkey” was in the neighbourhood, of whom they appeared in awe. Mr. Paschen subsequently set out to find the “monkey,” accompanied by some seventy-one natives. After about fifteen minutes’ walk.they came to a dense and swampy thicket, where the native said

the beast was hidden. At last the animal was discovered hiding in a tree, so situated that no one could get at him. The daring hunter at once took out his bush-knife, and after considerable trouble managed to cut a path to the foot' of the tree. His curiosity aroused, the gorilla looked down through the leaves, but at that' moment Mr. Paschen s gun was heard, and the huge beast received an ugly wound in the jaw. It fell head first out of its perch, and caught hold of the branches before it reached the bottom. But a second shot, well directed, brought the monster to the ground at the very feet' of the slayer. It was not only a giant, but a magnificent specimen of its class. The skin was beautiful and the teeth perfect. Twelve men carried it back to the village—no easy task, as the monster turned the scale at about 500 pounds. After taking a snapshot of the gorilla Mr. Paschen had it skinned. This and the beast's bones were embalmed, sent

to Europe, and subsequently mounted in Hamburg at Mr. J. F. G. Umlauff’s ethnological museum by Mr. Willy Umlaut!', after four months of incessant work. After the gorilla had been mounted, it was purchased by the Hon. Walter Rothschild for his natural history museum at Tring. It is one of the principal objects in that museum. The huge beast stands five feet five inches high, and measures over eight feet from finger to finger. Another famous taxidermie feat by this same firm was the dressing and mounting of a monster sea elephant, the largest animal of its kind ever killed. It was found some eighteen months ago by whalers off the coast of the Falkland Islands. They promptly surrounded it and subsequently slaughtered it. The next procedure was to skin the monster, and the hide and raw skeleton were purchased by Mr. Umlauffi He at once began the difficult task of mounting the giant. It occupied him six months. A laborious piece of work was the removing of the fatty matter from the skin, which was entirely per meated bv blubber-canals. Before the animal was finally dressed a model was made, and as good pictorial representations of the sea elephant are scarce, the artist had very little material to guide him. Some idea of the size of the monster may be gauged from the fact that from the tip of its tail to the tip of its tusk it has a total measurement of nearly 21ft. Sm-h an animal when alive, would weigh 10.000 pounds, or, say. 4.1 tons. The circumference of the body at its widest part is some ISft. The skull alone measures 2ft. 3in. long and Ift. 3in. high. The mounted specimen is now on view in the Berlin Zoological Gardens. The sea elephant, or seal elephant, is now very rare. Formerly they were found in large numbers in the Antarctic Ocean. Even old-experienced whalers, who have seen the one recently mounted, declare they have never met a larger specimen. It has derived the title elephant from the fact that it possesses a kind of trunk, or proboscis. This characteristic is only found, however, in the old males. It extends quite a foot beyond the angle of the mouth. In other respects, also, the males are distinguished from the females, more especially by their size. Tile female, on the average, attains only half of the length attained by the males, and only one third the weight. The ungrudging labour spent by the modern taxidermist in obtaining a faithful representation of the animal he attempts to preserve, and its surroundings. is well illustrated by the four group- of American red deer recently -et up for the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, by Mr. Carl E. Akeley, the taxidermist of that institution. They are beautifully done and depict a red deer family during one year of its woodland life —in spring, in summer, in autumn and in winter. We reproduce photographs of two of these groups—depicting Summer and Winter. The contrast is remarkable. In the summer scene are shown four red deer in the

coat of the season —the old busk with bis horns still in the “velvet” ; the old doe earing for her spotted fawn, and in the background, just showing his head from beneath

the branches, is the yearling buck, proud of his first antler growth, though it consists of nothing more than two rudimentary prongs. The placement of the animals is decidedly picturesque. They are depicted as if at the edge of a wood land lake. The old buck is standing in the water. He is taking a look at his surroundings before beginning to feed on the roots and pads of the water-lilies at the lake’s edge.

With the exception of the large treetrunks, all the vegetation in this scene is artificial. Yet it must be admitted that it has not that appearance. Each stalk is built up by comparison with one of nature’s own, and through it runs metal tubing to give it stability. The leaves are of wax, copied from nature with infinite painstaking. When it is said that there are over 17,000 leaves in this one set-piece, some idea is obtained of the immensity of the work.

Then take the winter picture. In this the deer are seen clad in their heavy winter garments. The fawn, now well grown, is reclining in a bed of snow. The old doe is reaching for lungwort, an edible bit of which she is fond, and which grows on the bark of the birch. The young buck is after ground hemlock beneath the surface of the snow. Two Canadian jays, or whisky-jacks, as the lumbermen call them, give additional life to the scene. One perched near the browsing buck is curiously watching to see what he will turn up from beneath the snow. The other jay is at the right of the patriarch of the deer family. The snow, which weighs down the branches of the trees, forms grotesque

caps for the stumps, and makes a white carpet for the woods, is not snow, but

sugar. The counterfeit is perfect, however, and as one looks back seemingly into the depths of the forest there is the same sparkling resemblance of a snowfall. One is not surprised to learn that a faithful study of the surrounding of these animals in the different seasons was made before the artist began his task of grouping the deer. The four pieces represent many months of patient labour, but the result is decidedly charming. Such work as this goes to prove the writer’s opening statement that modern taxidermy is an art, and not merely the “stuffing” of an animal. the putting-in of glass eyes, and the insertion of a few metal rods to give to leg and neck a stiffness that nature never knew.

One has to go to St. Petersburg to discover the biggest animal ever mounted—namely, a Siberian mammoth in the Zoological Museum of the Academy of Sciences in that city. The great beast was discovered by a Cossock, named Jawlowsky, in the summer of 1901, on the banks of the Beresowka, an affluent of the Kolyma, in latitude 67deg 32min, a remote part of North-eastern Siberia. The find was reported to St. Petersburg, and Dr. Otto Herz, of the Imperial Museum, was dispatched to secure the body entire. To accomplish this he was given a company of Cossack troopers and 50 horses for transport. After a tremendous journey over trackless mountains and swamps they reached the spot, but. says Dr. Herz, “We were at a loss to proceed further, for the maps of the district are not detailed, and we found ourselves in the midst of a

vast district of exactly stimilar ice-mounds. Finally, however, my nostrils detected a strange odour, and it occurred to me that it might be the flesh of the monster we were seeking. By dint of walking in the direction whence the smell seemed to come, I finally located the mammoth. In my excitement I ran the last mile of the way against a fast-increasing stench. At the spot I found a faithful Cossack, who for fifty days had stood guard, over the carcase at the command of his superior officer. He had covered it entirely over with dry soil to a depth of three feet, but even through this protection the smell made its way.” The mammoth had evidently fallen into a hole, his plunge having no doubt caused masses of neighbouring soil to loosen and cover him over completely. Water then [mured into the grave, became frozen, thus preserving the great animal as if he were in a cold-storage chamber. In this way the enormous carcase was preserved, for how long no one knows —centuries perhaps—-until some years ago a movement of the earth spat forth the fossil mausoleum, leaving it exposed to the sun and wind; and gradually the ice wore off and revealed to the passing Cossack the long-hidden treasure. Dr. Herz soon saw that the huge beast was in a remarkable state of preservation. The proboscis and other soft parts of the head had been eaten away by carnivorous animals, while only one tusk remained. With the exception of this the mammoth was absolutely complete. The most delicately soft parts of the animal had been wonderfully preserved, and considerable anxiety was experienced in preventing the tissues from putrefying when taken out. Dr. Herz thinks that the mammoth was quietly browsing on grass-land which formed the thin covering of a glacier,

that a crevasse in this ice was obscured by the soil, and that the heavy animal accidentally fell through.

The feat of removing the skin was no easy one. Huge quantities of disinfectants had to be poured over the animal to reduce the stench and make it possible for the doctor and his assistants to take measurements and superintend the work. At last this section of the undertaking was accomplished, when the flesh had to be cut away, all the bones removed. washed, cleaned, chemically

treated, and carefully packed ready for transportation. It was also decided to preserve certain portions of the flesh, which w-as treated with arsenic and then sewn up in huge cowhide bags in a frozen state. After this work was finished the remains of the mammoth had to De dragged on sledges and floated on rafts

for 3000 miles before the Siberian railway was reached, when train was taken to the Russian capital. Arriving there, the great task of mounting the mammoth was commenced in earnest, and our photograpn depicts the prehistoric beast as it now appears in the museum at St. Petersburg.

It is mounted in the attitude in which it met its death. The skeleton has been preserved and mounted separately, amt is wonderfully complete. The skin hid lost much of its hair, but some of this has now been restored from other specimens in the museum. The hair on this giant has an average length of seven

inches, while the yellow wool under it is from five to ten centimetres thick. The animal is a young male, and not remarkable, so far as the mammoth is concerned, for its size. It is, nevertheless, a very valuable acquisition to the world’s natu ral history specimens.