THE » CONCHOLOGISTS’ - EXCHANGE. 83 
Young Collectors’ Corner. 
The Dredge. 
BY CHAS: T. SIMPSON: 
Probably but a few novices and amateur 
conchologists ever use the dredge, and yet it 
is one of the most indispensable implements 
that a collector can have. I remember that in 
my earlier days as a collecter I supposed it was 
a complicated affair, and that only an expert 
could manage it. Perhaps a little of my ex- 
perience with it may be useful to others. Years 
ago, in Florida, I found that of many species 
only worn specimens or scattered valves were 
thrown up on the beaches, and I determined 
to build the simplest kind of an affair with 
which to attempt an exploration of the sea- 
bottom, in the hope of getting these specimens 
in good condition. I had a blacksmith cut off 
two pieces of iron three-sixteenths of an inch 
thick, three inches wide. and two feet long. One 
edge of each of these blades was hammered out 
thin, for a scraping edge, and along the other 
small holes were punched, two inches apart. 
‘These pieces were placed parallel to each other, 
with the sharpened edges out, and the edges 
haying the holes about five inches apart. ‘The 
ends were fastened together by five-eight round - 
iron bars, flattened at the ends and riveted to 
the blades, and curved so that an end view of | 
the blades would look like this >. Four 
holes were punched in the ends of the blades. 
and through each one of these was brought a 
three-eight round iron rod, riveted on the back 
of the blades (the cutting edges being the front 
of the dredge) and welded into an eye directly 
in front of the center of the blades, and about 
two feet from them. A piece of canvas four 
feet long was doubled in the middle, and 
the ends securely fastened to the holes in the 
rear of the blades by a lashing, making a bag 
open at the sides which were filled each with a 
triangular piece of fine fish net, with about half- 
inch meshes and thoroughly sewed in. To 
the eye in front was fastened a strong rope 
three-fourths of an inch in diameter and 100 
feet in length, and my machine was ready to be 
tried. 
I confess that I had many misgivings as to 
whether it would work, especially when the 
old Salt, in whose sail-boat I was going to try it, 
offered to bet that it wouldn’t even fill with 
mud. We reached the mouth of the Manatee 
Bay, the sail-boat was brought up into the 
wind so that it barely moved, and I threw the 
machine overboard into some seyen fathoms of 
water, letting out gradually nearly all my line. 
After a little it began to pull, which was en- 
couraging, and soon I felt a peculiar jarring 
sensation as delightful as a fisherman feels 
when a big fish has hold of his line, and I knew 
that at least I was getting a bag full of mud. 
After what seemed to me to be an age, but 
what was perhaps not more than ten minutes, 
I drew it up, the sand and mud washing out as’ 
it came slowly through the water, and dumped 
the contents, perhaps nearly a bushel, on the 
deck, When I washed it out, judge of my sur- 
prise and delight at finding over thirty species 
of shells in several hundred samples, nearly 
all living or in good condition, and many of 
which were either new to me or had only been 
found dead and badly worn. I could hardly 
keep from jumping over board. and it was now 
my turn to laugh at the old skipper. 
From that day on I found this rude and sim- 
ple machine a perfect success; in fact it con- 
tained the essential principle of Ball’s celebra- 
ted dredge. and I never had a particle of trou- 
ble with it anywhere. For convenience of 
carrying, or for working in rocky bottom, it is 
better that the arms should be made in two 
pairs, one pair at each end of the dredge and 
fastened to it with an eye at each end of the 
arm, passing around the curved iron at the 
end of the frame. The drawing end of each 
pair ofarms should end in a large eye, the 
rope to be fastened through one of these, and 
the other tied fast with rope yarn, and then, in 
case the dredge becomes fast, the rope yarn 
will break under a strain, allowing the one 
pair of arms to swing back and with it one side 
of the dredge, when it can generally be drawn 
up without any trouble. A square box a few 
inches deep and a couple of feet across, with a 
bottom made of fine copper screen and held in 
place by any simple means over the side or 
stern of the boat, is of immense advantage, as 
the contents of the dredge can be dumped into 
