COLLECTING FOSSILS. 79 



been incorporated. (The glycerine prevents the gum 

 becoming brittle when dry.) 



The beautiful ferns, the curious fruits, the ornate 

 Sigillaria, and the bewitching glimpse given us of a 

 subtropic jungle, characterizing the coal-formation 

 and its flora, present a difficulty to the collector. 

 Most of the fossils are on shales and that crumbles 

 to pieces so easily when it gets dry. To prevent this, 

 dry it thoroughly, and put it in a shallow vessel (pie- 

 plate) in which is some paraffin. Allow the whole 

 arrangement to stand on a warm plate until the par- 

 affin is melted, when the shale will soak it up, and, on 

 cooling, be much more able to stand the risks of trans- 

 portation. 



A Caution. Find out first from the specimen itself 

 what the genus is be it animal or plant. Then put 

 on a provisional label, like this : 



FAMILY No 



GENUS 



Specific name 



Collected by at 



Named by 



Don't stick the label on the fossil, but stick on a 

 small bit of paper with a number on it to correspond 

 with your label. If you have your labels printed, tell 

 the printer to put them in nonpareil. We will suppose 

 you have found a fossil ; and on turning to the pic- 

 tures in the Geology you find it looks like Rynchonella 

 capax, or like Spirifer Niagarensis, or, it may be, Or- 

 this lynx. You have here not only (3) genera, but 

 (3) families represented. Now, which is it ? Refer- 

 ence to Dana's handbook, page 170, tells you that the 

 families are distinguished by differences of internal 

 structure, that your specimen, being solid, gives no 

 information about. Turn to Macfarlane's Geological 



