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collector might be of service. He intended to make his remarks exceedingly 

 elementary. 



Supposing a person intended to start in the autumn for the sea side in 

 order to collect objects for the microscope, he would urge him to endeavour 

 first to become something of a biologist, so as to understand what he was 

 collecting, and not merely to obtain a number of pretty objects. If fewer in 

 number were obtained, those, if well understood, would be far more valuable 

 than a larger collection of badly selected specimens which were not under, 

 stood. He would advise him to study the various creatures, first taking the 

 widest scope, afterwards a more special branch, and the result would give 

 pleasure and instruction. 



The first point to consider would be where to go. Probably that question 

 would be a great deal affected by personal considerations, but if a choice of 

 locality were afforded by all means choose a hard rock coast. The water 

 comes to the shore clear, and the specimens are consequently beautifully 

 clean. Objects collected in dirty water would of course be covered with dirt. 

 Granite shores usually border very clean water, containing equally clean 

 specimens. All hard rocks are not equally favourable. Granite is the king 

 of rocks for collecting, not perhaps for quantity, but for good condition of 

 the specimens. Granite also stands out boldly into deep water, and the 

 creatures collected are health)'. Graywacke and the harder limestones are 

 very good. Slate on edge is also good collecting ground, and the objects are 

 easily obtainable, but do not come up in as good condition as those from 

 granite or other hard rock. The granite coasts are the Cornish, where there 

 are hundreds of miles of it, the Channel Islands, and some part of the Irish 

 coast. By granite is meant all the granitic formations. Serpentine is not 

 bad, but it does not wear into holes, which give shelter to the creatures. For 

 a similar reason Basalt, although very hard, is an exceedingly bad rock, 

 the waves sweep everything off it. 



Collectors, however, need not be discouraged who cannot get to a hard- 

 rock coast. Plenty of good things can be obtained on every shore. Chalk 

 is probably as bad as any formation, but his first experience was a winter at 

 Brighton, and he had still a large series of specimens he collected there that 

 winter, at which he often looked with surprise. 



Outfit is the next consideration. That must necessarily be influenced by 

 the place selected. One could not walk about Ilfracombe or Torquay in the 

 costume most suitable for work on the rocks, for which there is nothing like 

 a jersey, an ordinary fisherman's jersey. He preferred it greatly to a shooting 

 coat; with such a coat if the collecting bcttles were put in the breastpocket, 

 and such other things as were required in the tail pockets, as is usually done, 

 and the collector knelt or stooped down at the edge of the pool to examine 

 it, as he must do, it would generally happen that the bottle in the breast 

 pocket would be found empty, Hie inverted position of the upper part of the 

 body having produced that result, and the lower part of the coat including 

 the pockets, would be soaked in the pool, and the contents not improved by 

 the bath. Another disadvantage of carrying bottles in the pockets is that they 

 get hot, aud the creatures die. To bring home specimens in the best condition 

 they must be kept cool. That is absolutely necessary. 



