Searching the Sand. 237 



securing the specimens no other implements are 

 needed than a spade and a bucket on a suitable shore 

 at low water. 



There is in many people a zeal for collecting which 

 evaporates and wastes itself in the picking up of 

 variously coloured pebbles, shining pieces of quartz, 

 and imaginary fossils. Others more enlightened, with 

 their attention directed to objects really worthy to be 

 studied, are often frustrated in their pursuit of know- 

 ledge by having at their command no suitable methods 

 of collecting. They find a coast barren of zoological 

 interest, when perhaps it is really teeming with the 

 objects they would most wish to obtain if they only 

 knew how to get at them. To these it will be a real 

 boon to learn some of the methods which Mr. Robert- 

 son has devised for gathering in his harvests from 

 shores and sea-depths that might otherwise be found 

 quite unfruitful. 



Suppose the weather fair for shore-hunting, by 

 preference a day or two after the moon is new or 

 full, about an hour before the tide is at its lowest, he 

 and a companion will sally forth, equipped with a 

 spade, a couple of zinc pails, a couple of wide-mouthed 

 glass jars, and a net of cheese-cloth fastened to a ring 

 of six or eight inches diameter. Near the edge of 

 the retreating tide one bucket will be filled about one- 

 third full with slices of the surface sand, the other 

 bucket half full with sea-water from any pool that 

 happens to be near, or, if need be, from one dug for 

 the purpose. The water from the one bucket is 

 poured on the sand in the other, the mixture stirred 

 quickly about with the spade or the hand, allowed to 



