Taking and Preserving SJiells. 23 



of sea-Tveed^ thev are ]ike.y to be preserved from 

 iDJurr; and such heaps of uprooted marine vege- 

 tation will often afford a rich, harvest to the yonng- 

 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 retm-ned from 

 a fishing voyage, the fisherman^s di-edge or net, 

 the cable, and the deep-sea line; all these may 

 prove productive, and should be looked to when- 

 ever opportunity offers j nor should the search for 

 land and fresh- water shells be neglected, for many 

 of these are veiy curious, as well as beautiful, and 

 no conchological collection is complete without 

 them. For these, the best hunting-grotmds 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 — > 



