150 HOW TO WORK 



to pack into each other and hold the dredge, drag hook and surface 

 net and the outer tray being provided with a lid and straps, forms a 

 packing case for the outfit. A convenient form of portable micro- 

 scope with an inclinable body, &c., suited for dredging excursions, or 

 for a shore-collecting sea-side expedition is shown in fig. 226. 



The collector should examine stagnant pools, ponds, rivers, 

 boggy ground, rock pools and basins on the sea shore, carefully 

 searching the sides and bottoms, the fronds of plants, or pieces of 

 wood floating therein, for gelatinous or spongy masses, or palpable 

 forms of vegetable or animal life, not forgetting to examine with a 

 lens all scums floating on the surface of water, to see if they consist 

 of, or have entangled, objects worth preservation. Filamentous 

 Desmidieas, if diffused through the water must be collected by aid of 

 the gauze net. When gelatinous or cloudy masses are adherent to 

 the fronds of water plants, the hand should be passed gently into the 

 wat:r, palm upwards to form a cup, and the fingers closed on each 

 side of an invested leaf or stem ; the hand should then be drawn 

 upwards, so as to allow the plant to slip through the fingers close to 

 the palm with an easy equable motion, care being taken as to how the 

 hand is raised from the water, lest the captives should be washed 

 out of the concave palm. Water resting in the indentations made by 

 the feet of cattle, should not escape notice. The side of a pond 

 towards which the wind is blowing, is always the most prolific, 

 especially if the sun is shining on the same side, and the shallow 

 parts are richer in spoil than the deep on account of being warmer. 

 The collector who means work should encase his legs in waterproof 

 wading boots and follow the sea out as it recedes at the low spring 

 tides, when the greatest amount of shore is left uncovered. The 

 months of March and April, September and October having the lowest 

 tides in the year are the best for the purpose of shore collecting. 

 Those parts of the coast should be selected which are neither too 

 hard like granite, nor too soft like chalk, but such as favour the for- 

 mation of ledges, crevices, rock pools, and basins, heaps of debris, 

 and outlying caverns. 



Holes in the sand should be searched for case building worms or 

 boring mollusks. Large fish or marine animals left stranded by the 

 recess of the tide should be examined for parasitic Crustacea, &c., 

 especially the gill-covers of fish. The masses of olive sea weeds 

 covering the rocks should be turned over, or when hanging pendant 

 from overhanging slabs, they should be turned back as they generally 

 shield such forms as attach themselves to the surface of rocks, as 

 starfishes, ascidians, nudibranchs, eggs of mollusks, Alcyonia, tube 

 forming Annelids, Sponges, &c. Crevices should be searched for 



