208 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



better to relax the muscular attachments, and the 

 bodies, or so much as will come away, dragged out by 

 forceps or a pin passed through the foot. The shells 

 may now be dried in sand as before mentioned. 



In cleaning the shells of some species, great 

 care is needed, so as not to remove the hairs or 

 bristles wdiich clothe tlie surface of the epidermis. 



The shells of such snails as Palndiiia, Cijclodoma , 

 &C.&C., would be imperfectly illustrated without the 

 opercula which close the apertures of their shells. 

 Each one should be detached from the foot of tiie 

 snail, the interior of the sliell plugged with cotton 

 wool, and the specimen gummed dow'n in its natural 

 position. 



The preservation of slugs requires separate treat- 

 ment, and I can give but little additional inform- 

 ation to that published in my " British Land and 

 Ereshwater Molluscs," an extract from which is 

 subjoined. 



" As regards the internal shell, it maybe obtained 

 by making a conical incision in the shield, taking 

 eare not to cut down upon the calcareous plate, 

 which can then be removed without difficulty. Tiie 

 animals can only be conserved by keeping them in 

 some preservative fluid ; but the great object to 

 keep in view is to have the slug naturally extended. 

 Most fluids contract the slugs when they are im- 

 mersed in them. The slugs should be killed whilst 

 crawling, by plunging them into a solution of cor- 

 rosive sublimate, or into benzine. Models in wax 

 or dough are sometimes substituted for the animals. 

 A writer in the Katuralist gives a process for the 

 preservation of slugs, which he states to answer 

 admirably, and to be very superior to spirit, glyce- 

 rine, creosote, and other solutions : — ' Make a cold 

 saturated solution of corfoaice sublimate; put it 

 into a deep wide-mouthed bottle ; then take the 

 slug you wish to preserve, and let it crawl upon a 

 long slip of card. When the tentacles arc fully 

 extended, plunge it suddenly into the solution ; in 

 a few minutes it will die, with the tentacles fully 

 extended in the most life-like manner; so much so, 

 indeed, if taken out of the fluid it would be dithcult 

 to say whether it be alive or dead. The slugs thus 

 prepared should not be mounted in spirit, as it is 

 apt to contract and discolour them. A mixture of 

 one and a half parts of water and one part of gly- 

 cerine, I flud to be the best mounting fluid. It 

 preserves the colour beautifully, and its antiseptic 

 qualities are unexceptionable. A good-sized test- 

 tube answers better tlian a bottle for putting them 

 up, as it admits of closer examination of th& animal. 

 The only drawback to this process is, that, unless 

 the solution is of sufficient strength, and unless the 

 tentacles are extruded when the animal is immersed, 

 it generally, but not invariably, fails. Some slugs 

 appear to be more susceptible to the action of the 

 fluid than others ; and it generally answers better 

 with full-grown than with young specimens. But, 



if successful, the specimens are as satisfactory as 

 could be desired ; and, even if unsuccessful, they 

 are a great deal better than those preserved in 

 spirit ; for, although the tentacles may not be com- 

 pletely extruded, they are more or less so.' " 



The Testacellae I have treated in the following 

 manner : by partially drying them in sand, and re- 

 moval of the soft parts through a cut in the length 

 of the foot, filling up with cotton wool and a re- 

 newal of the drying. 



Our land and freshwater snails have other struc- 

 tures besides their shells which should claim our 

 attention. These, which include their jaws, tongues, 

 and some other minute parts, are not so inaccessible 

 as one is at first too apt to consider, and are de- 

 servedly in favour as microscopic objects requiring 

 a low power. Anticipating a continuation of the 

 present article iu a second on the methods of ob- 

 taining and preparing these objects, I shall therein 

 assume that the collector has preserved the bodies 

 or the heads of the snails in spirit, which he has 

 removed from their shells in the 'process of pre- 

 paring them for his cabinet. He will take care to 

 keep separate the animals of each species. 



A last word upon the mode of displaying the 

 shells in tlie cabinet. Here one has considerable 

 choice, as they may be kept in open card trays, or 

 iu glass-topped boxes, or gummed on cards, papered 

 boards, or glass tablets. Loose specimens admit of 

 ready examination, whilst the method of mounting 

 permits an arrangement of individuals according to 

 size and locality, and is much to be preferred. 



THE STONE AGE FISH AND EISHING. 

 By Dk. Charles C. Abbott. 



ON the very brow of a high commanding ridge 

 that faces the beautiful broad Delaware, and 

 skirts an expanse of meadow that was of yore a 

 favourite haunt of the Red man, formerly stood an 

 extensive Indian village, that for centuries, pro- 

 bably, was a scene of all that characterized the life 

 of the aborigines ; for the fertile fields that now 

 replace the wigwams are the richer for the actual 

 thousands of skeletons that are crumbling into 

 dust, or have long since mingled into earth, with- 

 out leaving a trace of their former presence. 



On upland and lowland alike, about the gravelly 

 hill-side and in the muddy bed of the weedy creek, 

 are still fouud, in countless numbei's, the " chipped 

 flint " traces of a Stone Age people. We have 

 gathered thousands of objects from a few scores of 

 acres hereabouts, and they seem in no way dimin- 

 ished in numbers as yet. So deeply buried have 

 many finally become, that we need other means 

 than that friend of the archcTcologist as well as of 

 the farmer— the plough, — to bring them to light. 



One glorious sunny afternoon of the past month 



