298 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



quart. With these there is no danger of breakage or of 

 loss of contents if the basket should have a fall a rather 

 common occurrence. 



A trowel for digging up molluscs, worms, burrowing 

 anemones, etc. 



A good-sized knife for cutting off sponges, etc. 



A few corked tubes, about four inches long and three 

 quarters of an inch in diameter. These tubes are best 

 carried between two strips of cloth stitched together at 

 intervals to form a series of pockets, into which the tubes 

 can be put, like cartridges in a bandolier. This can be 

 rolled up, tubes and all, and carried in the pocket. A few 

 of the tubes should contain diluted spirits of wine. 



A pair of fine-pointed forceps for taking up minute 

 objects, such as small zoophytes, tiny shells, etc. 



A net. An ordinary semicircular prawn net is good, but 

 not the slight wire ringed ones that collapse on the first 

 push through a bank of sea weeds. If not convenient to 

 carry a net like this, one can be easily made that will pack 

 up. At the naturalists' shops a Y-piece, such as is used 

 for the larger entomological nets, can be obtained, or a 

 handy- man will solder together three bits of brass tubing 

 to this shape. The main tube should be of the size to fit 

 on a stout walking-stick, the branches of such size as to 

 admit two bamboo rods say half-an-inch in diameter. 

 Then three rods of bamboo, each about two feet long, 

 and a three-cornered net of cheese cloth with broad hems 

 around the opening to admit of slipping in the bamboo rods. 



The remainder is obvious. When the two diverging rods 

 are passed into the hems, and have one end inserted in the 

 tube, the third one is passed into the bottom hem and 

 fastened to the divergent ones at the corners. This net 

 can be " unshipped " and rolled up in paper, or pushed 

 into an oilskin umbrella case. A stout walking-stick forms 

 a handle. 



