SORTING AND PICKLING 285 



the " tin " into the jars with plenty of filtered salt water, 

 pick out the larger specimens with lifter and pipette, 

 and pickle them with as much elaboration as time 

 allows (see Chapter XL, " Preservation "). Add a few 

 drops of undiluted formalin to the jars, and stir the 

 contents gently till they are moribund ; they are then 

 allowed to settle. Pour off superfluous water, and 

 transfer them to a wide-mouthed, smaller bottle (say 

 1 6 ounces), and fill up with 2 per cent, formalin. 

 Later on, pour this off, and transfer the catch to the 

 storage bottle, and fill up with 7 per cent, formalin. 



The use of a compound microscope for live material 

 is almost impossible, except in harbour, but a little 

 " dissecting microscope," with lenses multiplying 6 

 and 10, or 8 and 18 diameters, is extremely useful ; it 

 can be clamped to a fixed table, or swing in gimbals. 



2. Dredging and Trawling. In this somewhat 

 messier work the contents should be emptied on to an 

 old sail, to save the deck. It is advantageous to lay 

 this over a fish-fiddle (say 4x3 feet), fixed, when 

 wanted, against a hatch, and to run a coaming 2 inches 

 high round the hatch, which can then be used as a table. 



When the material obtained by the trawl or dredge 

 has been deposited on deck an immediate effort must 

 be made to sort the heterogeneous assemblage of 

 animals which is revealed. Scarce or fragile specimens 

 should be transferred at once to glass jars or enamelled 

 dishes. Fish may be placed in baskets, and the 

 commoner invertebrates similarly treated, or stacked 

 in an enamelled fish-kettle or slop-pail in sea water. 



Fish should all be measured to the nearest centi- 

 metre, and entered in the scrap log-book along with 

 an enumeration of the invertebrates. Unless the 

 identity of the species is established beyond all doubt 

 samples should be preserved. It is evident that 



