Clerical Aid invoked. 291 



underlying some of the great peat deposits. As peat 

 generally contains free acid, the sample of clay to be 

 examined should be taken sufficiently low, out of 

 reach of the action of the acid, as most of the remains 

 of these small animals likely to be preserved in the 

 clay are calcareous, and would be dissolved by any 

 contact with the acid." 



During this year Robertson also renewed his cor- 

 respondence with the Rev. Mr. Gunn, the friendly 

 and liberal-minded geologist whose hospitality he had 

 enjoyed when in Norfolk. 



To him he sends a small dredge and o^redging-rope, 

 and a muslin net, and a coarse net, and canvas bags, 

 and a tin flask of spirit, and besides these, forsooth 



"You will notice a small cotton bag attached to 

 the rope a little forward from the dredge. This is to 

 put a stone into when, the water is any way deep, 

 which makes the dredge work better. And there is 

 another attached in the same way to the lower end of 

 the bag of the dredge to, keep the dredge in its proper 

 position." 



All these paraphernalia are sent to the clergyman, 

 in order that he may forward to Glasgow two or three 

 small bags of mud out of the Norfolk broads, where 

 no doubt there is so ample a supply of that commodity 

 that a little could be well spared to Scotland without 

 sensibly diminishing the stock required for the English 

 market. 



With the apparatus, elaborate instructions are sent 

 as to the collecting, preparing, and packing of the 

 precious consignment. It might be natural to sup- 

 pose that the flask of spirit was intended to encourage 



