38 A DREDGING EXCURSION. 



All is ready, the cork out, and the forceps pick him up. 

 Before you can ejaculate "Oh!" he is in fifty pieces; you 

 cannot find his legs, only a small black patch that you throw 

 overboard in disgust ; but he is not dead — only gone to grow 

 fresh legs. Feeling a little disappointed you go on sorting 

 out and getting rid of the stones, sand and debris by sending 

 them overboard, only before they go you look into every 

 cranny — for animals at the bottom of the sea seek every 

 possible shelter they can. An old shell or root of seaweed 

 may be a veritable treasure-house, but you have to hunt well 

 for the treasure. As long as the tide serves this let-down and 

 pick-up dredge process is repeated with varied success; now 

 and then a blank occurs. 



The spoils vary in accordance with the state of the 

 bottom, because amongst small rocks and stones you get 

 shells and small fish with now and then good specimens of 

 Zoophytes. In sand we get burrowing animals and shells 

 such as Cockles, Pectens, Quins, Dcntalium, &c. ; also soft- 

 bodied worms as Nereis, the tube worms, burrowing shrimps, 

 and a host of others. In broken ground, that is patches of 

 rock, stones, sand, or clayey substances, we find many speci- 

 mens of Crustacea, and in accordance with our general want 

 we should seek such spots. To enable us to do this we must 

 engage a practical fisherman who knows the bottom as if he 

 had been there all his life, and he can take us from spot to 

 spot as we desire. I don't mean to say you are going to get 

 the exact animal you want right off', but you must try for it 

 and if not successful the first time you must have another 

 try. Once you know his locality you are bound to have him, 

 and it onty requires perseverance to attain your object. 



Now, if we consider our heap is big enough for all hands 

 we will return to harbour a little wetter and perhaps a deal 

 dirtier than when we started ; but anyhow, we have had a 

 fair day's catch and enjoyed the outing. 



We are landed and our catch is brought home and put 

 out a little at a time on the table, and by our various 

 professors divided into groups as they please or fancy. We 

 will put our spoils into our several professors' hands and sort 

 as follows : — Crustacea, Zoophytes, Molluscoidea or soft-bodied 

 animals, Starfish and Echini, Worms, Shells, and we find 

 that we have 



1. Crustacea : Edible crab, Lady or swimming crab, 

 slow crab, spiders of three or four sorts, one about the size 

 of a bean remarkable for length of leg (often three inches), 

 spider crabs with a heavy growth of weeds on the shell, small 



