312 The Entomostraca of Mid-Lothian. [Sess. 
but it is convenient to have a bottle attached, so as to see 
from time to time what kind of material is being brought up. 
We sweep the net slowly through the water, passing it 
repeatedly through any weeds, so as to catch the creatures 
sheltering and feeding among them. Care should be taken 
also to scrape gently along the surface of the mud, since there 
are a number of species that cannot swim, but can only crawl ; 
and these of course are always found at the bottom. We 
generally collect from the surface of the water as well; in 
fact, our aim is to collect from every variety of locality in a 
pond—from deep water and shallow, from mud and from 
weed. We have usually confined our operations to fishing 
from the bank, but have occasionally collected also from a 
boat; and in large sheets of water this is necessary, since 
there are certain deep-water species which do not come near 
the banks. We empty the contents of the small bottle at 
intervals into a glass jar, in which they are carried home. 
Then they are turned out into a wide shallow white dish—a 
photographic developing-dish answers the purpose admirably 
—and after the mud has settled and the water cleared, it is 
comparatively easy to distinguish the various species by the 
naked eye. 
There are certain species found in Mid-Lothian which we 
have been peculiarly unsuccessful in obtaining ; and it appears 
from what we have lately read in a paper of Mr Scourfield’s, 
that some of these can only be found by a special method. 
He says, “I usually put wet mosses into a jar with water, and 
after beating them up vigorously with a fork or some such — 
implement, take out most of the pieces of moss and await 
results. In a short time a number of Harpacticids . . . are 
almost sure to be seen swimming about. . . . This method 
of washing damp mosses . . . has yielded two species not — 
found in any other way, namely, Alona rustica and Moraria — 
anderson-smitht.” 
Mounting. 
When we want to preserve specimens for mounting or any 
other purpose, we put them in a 4 per cent solution of formalin, 
in specimen tubes of the smallest size obtainable—1} inches 
by 4 of an inch. These tubes are numbered and a list kept 
