CLOSE OF THE DAY'S WORK. 33 



I quickly discarded all but the smallest, and bought half-a- 

 dozen glass jars of nearly a foot high, which have proved 

 very serviceable. When an animal dies, and the mortality 

 is great, it is easier to discover and remove the corpse, and 

 chanoe the water from a small iar than from a tank : more- 

 over, in jars you can keep your animals separate ; and 

 animals are not more amiable to each other than men ; the 

 strong devour the weak without any religious scruples. To 

 the jars I added shallow eartheuAvare pans, for Actmiae, and 

 some animals which the Actiniae would not molest. 



Our day's produce fairly sorted, the work of identification 

 begins. It is not enough to know that w^e have got a 

 Polype, an Eolis, or an Annelid before us ; we also desire to 

 know what species of each ; and this is sometimes a work 

 of long and troublesome investigation, because even if the 

 species is not one hitherto undescribed, we may have great 

 difficulty in identifying it by descriptions. This tries the 

 patience, but it exercises the faculties, and greatly sharpens 

 knowledge by forcing attention upon details. 



And here a word , respecting the books you ought to put 

 in your box. For reading, properly so called, the naturalist 

 has little time while at the coast ; but certain books will be 

 constantly referred to. All the books on Natural History, 

 or Comparative Anatomy, you can buy, beg, or borrow, 

 will be found of use ; but if your portmanteau refuses the 

 burden of many volumes, it is well you should know what 

 will be most serviceable. First, then, as indispensable, there 

 nnist be an "Animal Kingdom" — if not Cuvier's, then 

 Vogt's "Zoologische Briefe," or Rymer Jones's "General 



