THE NAUTILUS. 39 



he is tempted to throw away every thing he already has and begin 

 entirely anew. 



Prof. Hornaday spoke the truth when he said that " the collector's 

 life is a constant race for specimens." In the few brief days we had 

 at our command we felt that we must "make hay while the sun 

 shone." But dredging, though very delightful at first, when followed 

 up for eight or ten hours consecutively gets to be a good deal like 

 work, and hard, heavy, wet work too. So we did what I should 

 advise all collectors in similar circumstances to do ; Ave went ashore 

 during low tides and searched sometimes the sandy bays, the limited 

 areas of rocky shore to be found about that region, or the open 

 beaches ; and during high tide we dredged. One rocky bed laid 

 bare at low tide in Terraciea Bay was marvelously rich in Triio- 

 nidea tinctci, Cerltldxim floridanum, Semele reticulata, Murex nuceiis, 

 Cuviingia tellinoidea, Nassa consensa, Muricidea multangula, Uro- 

 salpinx perrugatus, and some other forms not often found on the 

 sand. 



Mrs. Mean's injunction "while yer a gittin' git a plenty" espe- 

 cially applies to the collector. One is prone when he sees anything 

 in great abundance to feel as though it was very common and was 

 hardly worth taking. Even the sight of a very rare moUusk in 

 quantities somehow lowers its value in one's estimation. But the 

 old collector who has let such chances go a few times, and after- 

 wards where his entire stock of the same thing has run out, regrets 

 his folly, learns to take all he can get of anything that is good. One 

 may find a species thrown up to-day by millions on a certain shore, 

 in excellent condition, and the next week, and for years afterwards, 

 he 'may not run across a dozen individuals of the same. I had lived 

 near Tampa Bay for four years and collected industriously, but 

 throughout my whole residence I never found a hundred specimens 

 of Olivella mutica, dead or alive. During our visit the dredge 

 brought them up living, glittering like dew dro2:)s, by the handfuls. 

 We dredged over and over the ground on which I once obtained in 

 quantities of Venericardia tridentata and flaheUa, Parastarte 

 triquetra, and Pandora trilineata, and scarcely found a specimen, 

 while on the same ground we got a great many Tubonillas, an 

 abundance of Comis peali, and a half bushel or more Area trans- 

 versa, not a specimen of which I had ever found there before ; and 

 on a sand flat that used to gladden my e3'es with Conus floridunus 

 not a single one could we find. 



