Sept. 1, 1S70.J 



HARDWICKE'S SC I ENCE-GO SSIP. 



193 



THE TO WING- NET. 



By MAJOR HOLLAND, R.M.L.I. 



H, liow I wish [we 

 had a yacht, and 

 could go out sail- 

 ing and looking for 

 curiosities every 

 day like those 

 happy people out 

 there," exclaimed 

 a fair damsel.point- 

 ing seaward to a 

 yawl with a merry party 

 on board, who appeared to be 

 thoroughly enjoying their summer 

 holiday. " Oh, how charming it 

 must be to glide along so silently 

 through the blue water, with the 

 bright sky overhead, and to read, 

 )j^-c^ cv ''' and work, and chat, while the 

 dredge down at the bottom is 

 filling itself with all sorts of new and wonderful 

 creatures, without any trouble to anybody ; and, 

 oh, the thrilling excitement when it is drawn up, 

 to see what it has collected. But, there," she 

 added, evidently labouring under the common delu- 

 sion that for all explorations beyond low-water- 

 mark, costly and elaborate appliances are indispen- 

 sable, " these things are only for rich people ; " and 

 then she pouted, and her all but overflowing eyes 

 seemed to question the justice of the dispensation 

 which she fancied had placed all the rare things of 

 the deep for ever hopelessly beyond her reach, and 

 limited her " findings " to the dead and mutilated 

 waifs and strays' cast up by the tide upon Southsea 

 beach. 



Truly it is a pleasant thing to carry on our re- 

 searches amongst the living things of ocean in a 

 well-appointed yacht, with a convenient apparatus 

 and all the accessories at hand ; but the dredge can 

 be worked effectively for all ordinary purposes from 

 a common wherry, with a couple of hands, at the 

 established fare of half a crown an hour ; and one 

 hour's work will furnish us with a stock of marine 

 No. 69. 



animals sufficient to fill all the aquariums, pans, 

 basins, and jars likely to be found in an average 

 establishment. The fishermen's children will gladly 

 bring to our doors for a few pence a maund of 

 " them pollywoggles, an' sea-spiders, an' rubbidge 

 wot Father (or, as they call him Fee-ayther) an' his 

 mates flings overboard," anathematizing them in no 

 measured terms for getting entangled in the nets ; 

 or, if we can summon up courage enough to venture 

 out to see how the weather-beaten, sunburnt sons 

 of toil gather in the harvest of the sea ; that stalwart 

 old sea-king " Fee-ayther," and his jolly satellites 

 of sea-bear mates will allow us, for a very modest 

 douceur, to go out in the smack with them the next 

 time they go a trawling, and then we can pick over 

 the nets for ourselves, and the civility and gentle- 

 ness of these sturdy wrestlers with the wild ocean, 

 who fight the fierce waves in the winter gales for 

 their hard-earned daily bread, may perhaps furnish 

 a wholesome lesson to some of nous mitres who have 

 been delicately nurtured, and who fare sumptuously 

 every day ; they do not see the good of our pursuits, 

 and there may be just the least possible soupcon of 

 pity, not to say contempt, mingled with the won- 

 der with which they contemplate the gentlefolks, 

 "a stowin' away them precious warmint, and all 

 manner o' gubbins, as though it was diamonds and 

 rubies." 



The entire fauna of the sea does not dwell in the 

 mud, or close to the bottom ; nor are the trawl and 

 the dredge the only engines of the naturalist ; the 

 towing-net, though sadly neglected, is one of his 

 cheapest, simplest, and most efficient contrivances ; 

 perhaps it is because it is so cheap, so simple, and 

 so easy to handle, that it is so little used; and 

 hence, while we are well up in our fishes and mollusca, 

 we know but little of the myriads of the Hydrozoa. 

 Let us see if we cannot learn to construct and use 

 one of these machines for ourselves, "in one lesson, 

 without the aid of a master." 



First, we go to the toy-shop and buy a child's 

 wooden hoop about twenty-two inches in diameter 



K 



