CHAPTER VI. 



HOW TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE SEA-WEED. 



LOUISA LANE CLARKE, in 'Common Sea-weeds,' 

 gives the following suggestions, which are evidently 

 the fruit of experience : " We dabble in the cool, clear 

 tide-pools, and scarcely know what we take up ; there 

 is a world of life in each. The speckled prawn is 

 balancing himself, and waving to and fro his sensitive 

 feelers, springing away under the rich foliage that con- 

 ceals his hiding-place ; and the small blenny darts like 

 a lightning-flash from cranny to crevice, the fear and 

 the dread of man upon it. On the green Ulva creeps 

 the lovely little slug a bright green, spotted with 

 white called Acteon viridis, and on darker sea-weeds 

 the great purplish sea-hare. Sea-spiders lurk amid 

 the coralline ; and as we gather a bunch of sea-weed, 

 we shake out dozens of a pretty little snail called 

 Rissoa, besides gathering, if we please, bright yellow 

 Nerita, the commonest sea-snail of our coast. All 

 these force themselves on the notice of the sea-weed 

 gatherer, as we scramble over the rocks, and pause 

 to consider where we shall begin. 



I advise taking a little of everything not much, 

 for they so soon spoil in waiting to be mounted and 

 naming each specimen as it is decided by reference to 

 your manual. If you have but a day for a sea-side 

 holiday, go down to the lowest ebb of the tide, in 

 hopes of the best red sea-weeds, and work back to the 

 commoner, but still beautiful, green sea-weeds, Ulva 

 and Cladophonz. 



Suppose, now, that we have made our search, and 

 have brought home a tangled mass of olive, red, and 

 green sea-weeds. 



