NATURALISTS DREDGE. 



149 



water, in which the pursuits of the deep-sea naturalist 

 can rarely be carried on. In other places, a rocky, or as 

 it is technically called a foul, bottom, presents insuper- 

 able obstacles to the use of a dredge.* It is only, there- 

 fore, in certain favoured localities that dredging can be 

 resorted to as an amusement by the frequenter of the 

 sea-shore. Land-locked bays and harbours, where a quiet 

 water flows over a smooth or a shingly bottom or lies 

 on oyster- or scallop-beds, are the favourite ground for 

 the amateur dredger; and these will generally yield him 

 abundance of sport for the length of a summer-day. 



Those who have never seen a dredge may wish to have 

 one described. There are several varieties of the instru- 

 ment. The common 

 one, with a single 

 scraper, being in use 

 among the fishermen 

 on most parts of the 

 coast, needs no de- 

 scription, as it may 

 generally be had by 

 inquiring of your 

 boatman ; but there 

 is another kind to 

 which the name of 

 Naturalist's Dredge 

 may be given, which 

 possesses some advantages over the common dredge, 



* N.B. A piece of leather fixed to the scraper is a good protection 

 to the network of the dredge when passing over a rough gravelly 

 bottom. 



