In stuffing and mounting a fresh-water fish, first cover with muslin the best side of the fish, and place it, with the other side up, on a table. Cut along from the head to the tail, and through this long cut remove the flesh of body. After clearing away the eyes and any flesh left round the fins, head, etc., dress with the preservative, which is an arsenical soap composed of 5 parts (by weight) of camphor, 32 parts of white arsenic, 32 parts of white soap, 2 parts of salt of tartar, and 4 parts of chalk. Now pad round the fins, head, etc., with putty, and proceed to stuff the skin by replacing the natural body with an artificial one made of tow, paper, etc., upon a wire foundation, or by well ramming in sawdust, bran, etc., as the sewing up is being done. Now turn the fish over and fasten it temporarily to a piece of board by means of wires left projecting through the cut. Arrange the fins and tail in the desired position and clip them, by means of pins, between pieces of cork. Insert the eyes and close the mouth, using pins and cork, and then leave the whole to dry.

Colour carefully to imitate nature, and varnish to represent wetness.