CHAP. VI. } DEEP-SEA DREDGING. 263 
venient. Their great disadvantage is that if the 
bottles on which they are fixed get wet they are apt 
to come off. 
Pencils are sold by seed-merchants for writing on 
tallies which are to be exposed to rain. Perhaps 
the safest plan is to mark the number and date with 
such a pencil on a shred of parchment or parch- 
ment paper, and put it inéo the bottle. This may 
seem a trifling detail, but so great inconvenience 
constantly arises from carelessness in this matter, 
that I feel sure of the sympathy of all who are 
interested in the scientific aspect of dredging when 
I insist upon the value of accurate labelling. 
It is of even greater importance that certain 
circumstances relating to every individual haul of 
the dredge should be systematically noted, either 
in the dredger’s diary, or on a special form prepared 
for the purpose. ‘The precise position of the station 
ought to be defined in shore dredging by giving the 
distance from shore and the bearings of some fixed 
objects; in ocean dredging by noting accurately 
the latitude and longitude. In the ‘ Lightning,’ in 
1868, we dredged at a station about 100 miles to 
the north of the Butt of the Lews, and came upon 
a singular assemblage of interesting animal forms. 
Next year, in the ‘ Porcupine,’ we were anxious to 
try again the same spot to procure some additional 
specimens of a sponge which we were studying. 
The position had been accurately given in the log 
of the ‘ Lightning,’ and the first haul at a depth of 
upwards of half a mile gave us the very same group 
of forms which we had taken the year before. On 
our return Captain Calver again dropped the dredge 
