Worth while to take his Wife. 159 



and alternately forego. Yet such is human nature 

 even in the most philosophic persons, that their spirits 

 at the moment were not so much elated by the 

 triumph of the escape as depressed by a sense of the 

 comic figure they must have cut in the eyes of a few 

 onlookers. 



In several of his more distant natural history ex- 

 cursions, Mr. Robertson had the enjoyable com- 

 panionship of his wife, who then always took an 

 active part in the work in hand. He pays a tribute 

 to her genius in domestic economy by expressing his 

 belief that by their going together in most cases the 

 expense incurred was less than if he had been by 

 himself. When staying for a week or so at a place 

 they used to take apartments, which with a good 

 manager at hand were far more economical than 

 being at an hotel, and more home-like, besides giving 

 them more freedom for laying out and examining the 

 treasures they gathered, and for going out and coming 

 in at the hours which suited their pursuits. 



In June, 1866, they left Glasgow for Aberdeen. 

 Their object was to see some of the post-tertiary 

 deposits of the north of Scotland. 



While staying at Aberdeen, they took a stroll 

 along the shore, and were amused at seeing four or 

 five young women going into the water with a long 

 net about six feet deep, the meshes of which seemed 

 to be about the size used in the common herring-net. 

 A hole was cut out in the middle, about four feet in 

 diameter, and a long bag of white bunting, thin woven 

 cloth, was placed in it. This was to capture sand 

 eels (Ammodytes lancea}. The women entered the 



