OF SPECIMENS. 23 



with minute holes ; at others, four small zinc cans, 

 of square form, with perforate tops, fitted into an 

 open box, like case-bottles in a wine-hamper. All 

 of these modes answer well ; I know not to which 

 I should give the preference; except that for Fishes 

 the large pail is decidedly the best. If heavy 

 stones or oyster-shells, very rich in Zoophytes and 

 Annelides, be required, a common cabbage-net may 

 be suspended from the lid of the pail in mid- water ; 

 the stones or shells, being put into this net, will be 

 kept from injuring themselves or their neighbours 

 by banging about upon the bottom. 



The more brief the period during which the 

 specimens are in transitu the better. Hence they 

 should be always forwarded per mail train^ and 

 either be received at the terminus by the owner, or 

 else be directed — " To be forwarded immediately 

 by special messenger." The additional expense of 

 this precaution is very small, and it may preserve 

 half the collection from death through long con- 

 finement. 



The packages should be opened immediately on 

 arrival ; several bowls, pans, &c. should be ready, 

 each half-filled with sea-water. The water in the 

 vessels just received should be carefully dipped or 

 poured off, and the specimens placed one by one 

 in the bowls. Thus you will not only see which 

 are alive and healthy, and which are sickly or 

 dead; but the weeds, shells, &c. will be rinsed 

 from the sediment, which has been abraded during 

 the rattling of the specimens in travelling. The 

 specimens can afterwards be deposited in the 

 Aquarium, their permanent home. 



Should any of the more delicate animals appear 

 much exhausted, they may often be restored by a 



