CHAPTER V. 



LECTURES: MORSE, PUTNAM, PACKARD. 



We are now at length settled quietly to work lor 

 the summer at Penikese. The bustle and excitement 

 and arrangement in detail of the work of the first few 

 days of our season are over, and we cheerfully "bend 

 to the oar," of routine which is not routine, and of 

 hard work which is truly a pleasure. Our time is all 

 occupied: When we are not attending lectures, or 

 out dredging, or otherwise collecting specimens, we 

 are in our laboratories dissecting specimens, using 

 our microscopes, observing the animals and plants 

 which we have collected, and which are lying around 

 everywhere in pails and pans of water, or in copying 

 out our lectures. Our table is covered with knives, 

 scissors, forceps, hooks for holding back the sur- 

 rounding membranes from those upon which we are 

 at work, and various other utensils. There are bot- 

 tles of alcohol, sea-water, glycerine, and other pre- 

 serving fluids some with specimens in them and some 

 without; there a large tin tray, about eighteen inches 

 long and a dozen wide, half full of alcohol and water, 

 in which are the remains of a skate-fish with the 

 brains exposed, which we are dissecting with a view 

 to showing the five pairs of nerves aud their sur- 

 roundings exactly as they exist in nature, and with 

 the outer membranes and flesh held back by pins, 

 which are inserted into the wax in the bottom of the 

 tray; and several birds, which had recently been shot, 



