106 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER XI. 



EUDENDRIUM RAMOSUM. 



WE heartily recommend such of our readers as may 

 be desirous of obtaining the marine productions of 

 our coasts in their full luxuriance and perfection, and, 

 moreover, of procuring many rare and valuable speci- 

 mens, which would otherwise be hard to meet with, 

 to cultivate the good offices of the fishermen who 

 may be employed in their vicinity. These men, who 

 are busy with their nets at all seasons and in all 

 weathers, will often be found of invaluable assistance, 

 but, unfortunately, it too frequently happens that 

 they are rather an unpersuadeable and unmanageable 

 fraternity, having whims and fancies of their own, 

 against which eloquence and argument are equally 

 inefficacious. To try to convince them that it is 

 worth their while to bring home anything not Fish, 

 is to attempt to controvert one of their maxims of 

 life ; and to endeavour to cajole them into the belief 

 that the refuse of their nets which in the North they 

 designate by the general term of ' ' pushin " or " pus- 

 som " (poison) can be of any value, is to stir up in 

 their minds serious doubts as to your own sanity. 



We remember upon one occasion, whilst natural- 

 izing upon the Scotch coast, taking no small pains to 



