COLLECTING AND PRESERVING 303 



Very delightful to the zoologist are those warm calm 

 summer nights, with just breeze enough to propel the 

 boat gently, a sea like a mill-pond, and no sound save the 

 ripple of water on the bows. 



If it is moonlight the scene is grand, if it is a dark night 

 the phosphorescence of the sea is more than a compensation. 



On the dark nights the net comes from the water like a 

 bagful of liquid fire of a green tint. 



As the net is emptied into the pail sometimes a great 

 blob of phosphorescence will flash out, and as quickly 

 vanish, until it is again disturbed. This is possibly some 

 large phosphorescent ascidian, or perhaps the rare and 

 beautiful, scarlet scaled worm, Euphrosyne. 



On one of the thwarts of the boat stands a lantern, and 

 now and again the jar is brought in front of it, and the 

 catch examined. The things I have named, and a myriad 

 more, are there : glassy Cydippes, with their rows of 

 waving cilia ; wriggling annelids, with glistening bristles on 

 their sides ; young of prawns and shrimps ; young fishes, 

 etc. etc., ad infinitum. 



It is well to have a piece of netting, with meshes half-an- 

 inch across, over the top of the funnel, for fear of any large 

 object blocking its tube and causing overflow and loss. 



Arrived at home, the collection must be attended to at 

 once, although it means the " midnight oil," for not many 

 of the captives will live for more than an hour or two within 

 this narrow home. 



A piece of straight glass tubing, of length sufficient to 

 reach the bottom of the jar, is needed. By placing the fore- 

 finger on one end of the tube, so as to prevent the air it 

 contains from escaping when it is submerged, and then 

 directing the free end to any object in the water, the latter 

 is easily caught. The finger is removed rapidly ; then the 

 water and the selected animal rush into the tube ; the finger 

 tip is replaced, and the contents dropped into the saucer 



