CHAPTER II 



THE SEA-SIDE NATURALIST 



OUTDOOR WORK 



ASSUMING that the reader is one who desires to become intimately 

 acquainted with the wonderful and varied forms of life to be met 

 with on the sea shore, or, hoping that he may be lured into the 

 interesting and profitable pastimes of the sea-side naturalist, we 

 shall now devote a chapter to the consideration of the appliances 

 required for the collection and examination of marine life, and to 

 general instructions as to the methods by which we may best 

 search out the principal and most interesting objects of the shore. 



First, then, we shall describe the equipment of an enthusiastic 

 and all-round admirer of Nature he who is interested in plant 

 forms from the flowering species down to the ' meanest weed that 

 grows,' and is always ready to learn something of any member of 

 the animal world that may happen to come within his reach. And 

 this, not because we hope, or even desire, that every reader may 

 develop into an all-round naturalist, but so that each may be able 

 to select from the various appliances named just those which 

 would be useful for the collection and observation of the objects 

 which are to form his pet study. 



The most generally useful of all these appliances is undoubtedly 

 some kind of case of the ' hold-all ' type, a case into which specimens 

 in general may be placed for transmission from the hunting-ground 

 in order that they may be studied at leisure, and we know of nothing 

 more satisfactory than the botanist's 'vasculum.' This is an 

 oblong box of japanned tin, fitted with a hinged front, and having 

 both handle and strap, so that it can be either carried in the hand 

 or slung over the shoulder. Of course almost any kind of non- 

 collapsible box or basket will answer the purpose, but we know of 



