129 



gathered from under the ice in January; but some marine spe- 

 cies may be found in greater abundance during the winter months 



^.v-^.V-* ^^L^»X^CIXX..K. ^Ullll^ 



than at any other time. In order to know a locality thorouglily, 

 however, it should be inspected both in summer and in winter. 



The visitor to Atlantic City who is hunting diatoms, may 

 always be gratified by taking the street cars and riding to the 

 inlet. Two or three hundred yards before reaching the terminus 

 of the road, a number of large, brackish pools may be observed 

 on the meadow^s just south of the railway. These pools are 

 quite shallow and are prohfic collecting-grounds at all seasons of 

 the year. If a day be chosen when the sun shines brightly, the 

 surface of the mud is coated a rich brown by the myriads of 

 diatoms which rise to the light, and if a gentle wind is blowing, 



the scum which is driven to the far shore by the wind is often 

 composed entirely of diatoms without admixture of sand- On 

 Christmas day, 1886, I collected in this way a very pure lot of 

 Nttzschia epithemioides, and in another pool only a few yards 

 away, an equally pure gathering of Navicttla veneta. Sometimes 

 very bright brown patches of diatoms cover the surface of the 

 mud, and the collector, in his anxiety to secure a large gathering, 

 (s tempted to collect mud and all with the expectation oi sepa- 

 rating the diatoms from the mud by w^ashing and whirling. The 

 following plan will be found much better: Half fill a bottle with 

 water; touch one of these brown patches lightly with the tip of 

 the finger and the diatoms will adhere; then place the finger 

 over the mouth of the bottle and shake; the diatoms are oi 

 course washed ofTand remain. By repeating this process again 

 and again, the water finally becomes quite brown. By the time 

 the collector reaches home the diatoms will have settled to 

 the bottom, and the water may be poured off and the diatoms 

 cleaned. It is worth while to examine under the collecting lens 

 every promising patch of brown mud, for v^xy pure gatherings 

 of quite different species may often be collected within a few feet 

 of each other. The species of which pure gatherings may be 

 l^ad in these pools are Nitzschia epithemioides, Navicida veneta^ 

 E'ptthemia mtiscuhis and Scoliopleura tumida. 



A {^^ rods south of the landing at the inlet is a flat which is 

 uncovered at low water. Here may be collected Schizonema 



