XIV. 



TRILOBITE HUNTING. 



" You may trace him oft 

 By scars which his activity has left 

 Beside our roads and pathways 

 He who with pocket -hammer smites the edge 

 Of every luckless rock or stone that stands 

 Before his sight by weather stains disguised, 

 Or crusted o'er with vegetation thin, 

 Nature's first growth, detaching by the stroke 

 A chip or splinter, to resolve his doubts." 



WOBDSWOKTH. 



7^ geologist is ever likely to forget his 

 first trilobite " find." Amongst my fossil 

 treasures too rarely visited, alas ! 

 there lies a fragment of one of these 

 curious crustaceans which, imperfect as it is, possesses 

 a charm for me that many far more elegant and 

 valuable objects lack, for it takes me back to a 

 sunny holiday in Shropshire when, amid most 

 beautiful natural surroundings, and in company of 

 enthusiastic friends, I enjoyed my first real trilobite 

 hunt. I have been to more prolific grounds since 

 then, and have knocked out more perfect specimens, 

 but not one of them has dislodged from its supreme 



