20 PERCY SLADEN TRUST EXPEDITION, 
The boxes and gear used by any individual collector are largely the product of his own 
fancy. We ourselves used flat-topped, patent bottles with india-rubber rings, placed in 
cases lined and divided by partitions cut out of mill-board. Our tubes were especially 
made for us in various sizes with rounded ends. For plankton we had corked bottles 
holding 4 and 8 ounces. The tubes were generally placed in larger vessels, but all 
bottles whether clamped or stoppered had their ends dipped into melted paraffin to prevent 
evaporation and the action of the air on the corks and rubber rings. The result was 
actually less than 1 per cent. of losses by breakage or drying up. We also used various 
kinds of tanks, some copper and some common tin, which could be soldered up. The 
preserving-fluids were alcohol (pure spirit diluted as required) and the ordinary formic 
aldehyde manufactured in this country, which we have found always to be more reliable, 
being less likely to acidify, than the much more expensive patented formalin. For reef- 
collecting *—and for land-collecting also—hammers with pointed and chisel-shaped ends, 
chisels and a small crowbar with chisel and claw, which can also be used for a walking- 
stick, are useful. The entomologist will do well to employ white nets in such localities 
as we visited. 
Mr. Bainbrigge Fletcher set our Lepidoptera as we obtained them and pinned out some 
of the Neuroptera and dragon-flies. For the rest we followed the advice of Dr. David 
Sharp and placed them to dry in sawdust, from which the finer particles of wood had 
been well sifted, subsequently setting them on our return to England. With the plants 
we had great difficulty, owing to the damp. The land plants, too, in such regions tend to 
be more succulent than the same plants in larger islands where the soil is less salt. We 
found that the only thing to do was to use plenty of paper and to change them at least 
daily. Fermentation set in at once, when we tried placing our press, which consisted of 
two flat boards with canvas straps, in the sun or engine-room. The limited success 
which we obtained was mainly due to Mr. Beer, who daily dried our paper for us in the 
latter room. The last stages were to paint the plants with corrosive sublimate, and to 
put them up in newspaper, labelling tbe packets with their different localities. Larger 
specimens, such as the flowers and leaves of trees and shrubs, we often in the first place 
killed in boiling water. The latter was used for all the marine plants that we pressed, 
but otherwise the treatment was the same. 
* It is scarcely necessary to point out that the reef-collector should under no circumstances, particularly at night, 
go into the water with any part of his body except head and arms exposed. To obtain a really representative 
collection from any locality, he must be prepared to work for hours with the water up to his waist or neck, and he 
must occasionally go out by night as well as by day. He will find at times that he is the object of considerable 
curiosity to small sharks and the deadly, though small, sea-snake (J/ydrus platurus), while occasionally sharp-jawed 
fish will, perhaps frightened by his companion, dash against him. Again, many fish have poisonous spines and 
Siphonophora have batteries of stings, while abrasions of the skin on corals usually lead to sores which can only be 
cured if salt water be avoided—in fact, by giving up reef-collecting for a time. We ourselves, after considerable 
experience, recommend, for coral-reef collecting-work, a shirt and khaki coat (the sun on the spine should be 
avoided), khaki breeches moderately tight and closing up at the knee, putties, and hobnailed boots, 
