chap, vi.] DEEP-SEA DREDGING. 237 



is conceivable to them that they may be devils of 

 some kind which may have the power in some occult 

 way of influencing them and the results of their 

 fishing. I believe, however, that with the progress 

 of education this notion is dying out in most places, 

 and that now fewer rarities and novelties are lost 

 because it is ' unlucky' to keep them in the boat. 



The naturalist's dredge does not appear to have 

 been systematically used for investigating the fauna 

 of the bottom of the sea, until it was employed by 

 Otho Frederick Miiller in the researches which 

 afforded material for the publication in 1779 of his 

 admirable " Descriptions and History of the rarer and 

 less known Animals of Denmark and Norway." In 

 the preface to the first volume Miiller gives a quaint 

 account of his machinery and mode of working which 

 it is pleasant to read. 



The first paragraph quoted gives a description of a 

 dredge not very unlike that used by Ball and Forbes 

 (Fig. 44), only the mouth of the dredge seems to 

 have been square, a modification of the ordinary 

 form which we find useful for some purposes still, 

 but in most cases it gives fatal facilities for ' wash- 

 ing out ' in the process of hauling in. 



" Praecipuum instrumentum, quo fundi maris et 

 sinuum incolas extrahere conabar, erat Sacculus re- 

 ticularis, ex funiculis cannabinis concinnatus, mar- 

 gine aperturae alligatus laminis quatuor ferreis ora 

 exteriori acutis, vlnam longis, quatuor vncias latis, 

 et in quadratum dispositis. Angulis laminarum ex- 

 surgebant quatuor bacilli ferrei, altera extremitate in 

 annulum liberum iuncti. Huic annectitur funis du- 

 centarum et pluriuni orgyarum longitudine. Saccus 



