THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



41 



The only articles required for this kind of col- boat among the spiles. Upon arrival at the 

 lecting are a small boat, narrow enough to pass wharf the "scraper" should let the net 

 between the posts in the wharves, a couple of down into the water as far as he can with- 

 pails and a scrape-net. out letting go the handle and clasp it against 



the post he intends to scrape, in the manner 



shown by Fig. 2. 



Fig. I. 

 The scrape-net, is of a quite peculiar shape 

 which I have tried to illustrate in Fig. i . In 

 this drawing A represents the handle, whiJi 

 should be eight or nine feet long, and of 

 tough wood, BBC the iron frame work of 

 the net, and D the net itself. The net 

 should be of strong twine with meshes about 

 a quarter of an inch in diameter. The part 

 C or the blade is sharp and curved inward 

 slightly so as to scrajse the spiles more eft'ect- 

 ively. 



To meet with the most success a good 

 day should be chosen, when low tide comes 

 at the time which is to be spent collecting 

 and when the water is smooth. 



Having provided ourselves with the neces- 

 sary tools we will get into the boat row to 

 the nearest wharf which we will suppose to 

 be a good one for collecting. 



I will say at this point that the collector 

 must learn by experience where to go to ob- 

 tain the best results, for, while one wharf 

 may yield an abundance of specimens another 

 wharf, perhaps within a few hundred feet of 

 the first, may be an exceedingly poor col- 

 lecting ground. 



Two persons make just the right number 

 to manage the work properly, one to do 

 the scraping, and the other to guide the 



Then pressing hard on the handle so as ts 

 keep the blade against the post pull up the net 

 scrapmgthe side of the post as clean as possible. 



Thus the animals detached from the spile 

 fall into the net and in a good collecting 

 ground this operation does not have to be re- 

 peated many times before the pails begin to fill 

 with specimens. 



Although the handling of the scrape-net may 

 seem very hard at first, after a while it will 

 become easier although I do not thmk that 

 even a skilled operator would call it easy. 



Now that I have described the methods of 

 collecting, I will note briefly some of the 

 invertebrates which I found on the spiles at 

 Woods Holl, Mass. 



