The "Bonnie Dundee!' 297 



specimen of that species, but a great number of a 

 different one. In some of their operations upon 

 rough ground the bag of the dredge was soon worn 

 into holes or torn, especially the thin canvas or 

 cheese-cloth bag of the "wee dredge." To remedy 

 this a stronger canvas bag, open below, was put on 

 the outside of the other. 



On former occasions Robertson had been at a loss 

 to get such a label as would keep quite legible on 

 the outside or inside of the bags of wet mud. He 

 had tried both parchment and brown leather, but the 

 damp seemed soon to obliterate the writing. At last 

 he thought of the plan of putting the label into a 

 small wooden needle-case, in which he has always 

 found the label clean and in good condition even 

 after lying in the wet or damp for weeks together. 

 Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys when on board the Valorotis 

 gladly adopted this ingenious contrivance. The 

 plan itself, or some modification of it, might be 

 applied to the labelling of fruit-trees. Another 

 advantage that the needle-case had for Robertson's 

 purpose was that, being put into the bag, it ran no 

 danger of being torn off or defaced, as may so easily 

 happen to outside labels. It is obvious that for the 

 purpose of ready reference an outside label may be 

 used in addition to the protected one. 



After the first day, Norman and the ladies left, and 

 they saw no more of them on the Bonnie Dundee. 

 The custom of the dredging party was to go home 

 every night to Sunderland. There was one excep- 

 tion, when they lay in Scarborough harbour for the 

 night. It was between these two towns that their 



