Taking and Preserving Shells. 23 
of sea-weed, they are likely to be preserved from 
injury; and such heaps of uprooted marine vege- 
tation will often afford a rich harvest to the young 
conchologist, who should always carefully examine 
them. Many of the shells are so minute as scarcely 
to be seen with the naked eye, therefore this search 
can scarcely be properly effected without the assist- 
ance of a pocket lens, the cost of which is but 
trifling. The undersides of pieces of stranded 
timber, the bottoms of boats lately returned from 
a fishing voyage, the fisherman’s dredge or net, 
the cable, and the deep-sea line; all these may 
prove productive, and should be looked to when- 
ever opportunity offers; nor should the search for 
land and fresh-water shells be neglected, for many 
of these are very curious, as well as beautiful, and 
no conchological collection is complete without 
them. For these, the best hunting-grounds are 
the ditch side and the river bed, the mossy bank 
and the hedge-row; amid the twining, serpent- 
like roots of the old thorn and elder trees; the 
crevices of the garden wall, the undersides of 
stones, and all sorts of out-of-the-way holes, nooks, 
and corners, where may be found the Striped 
Zebra, and other prettily-marked snail shells, and 
many other kinds worthy of a place in— 
