198 THE FLOATING ANIMALS 



It will be seen readily from this brief sketch that 

 plenty of interesting work awaits anyone who has 

 opportunity and a tow net. In harbour, from a pier 

 or reef of rocks if the tide serves, from a small boat or 

 a big ship, the tow net can be streamed with the 

 certainty of an interesting result ; even if the catch 

 be scanty, the result becomes of value if the reason for 

 its scantiness be found. No observation, however 

 apparently insignificant, is scientifically worthless if it 

 be securely based on fact. On however small a scale, 

 valuable work may be done for science without attack 

 ing the more intricate problems. The simple tow-net 

 haul in foreign parts, if accompanied by the necessary 

 observations, will always be worth making, preserving, 

 and submitting to experts for report. 



Finally, a word of advice to the beginner who wishes 

 to collect for his own instruction, and to do serious 

 work ; he will be at first bewildered with the wealth 

 of life at his disposal, and depressed with the difficulty 

 of finding what is already known, what not. Let 

 him therefore confine himself strictly to the animals 

 of one, or at most two, groups, and hand the rest over 

 to an expert at home ; let him select for his own study 

 a group which has been recently revised, or dealt with 

 in a report from some important expedition, so that he 

 may get the literature of the group under control. 

 The choice of the group will depend to some extent 

 on the waters to be traversed, but in this, as in all such 

 matters, the Society will be glad to advise. 



NOTE. As it may help the beginner to have standards for 

 open tow nets suggested to him, one of the writers submits his 

 own specification, which does not differ greatly from the nets 

 in use generally on expeditions (i) Net : circumference of 

 mouth, 5 feet ; circumference at tin, i foot ; length, 6 feet ; 

 meshes per linear inch, 62 ; breadth of top and bottom tapes, 

 i inches. (2) Cane frame, inside diameter, 18 inches. (3) 



