86 
NATURE NOTES. 
preparations are made by the local biologists for a general exodus 
from the city to the shores of Anglesea, and with a thoughtfulness 
and generosity which w r ell deserve imitation, the expedition is 
provided with that all-important essential, a steamer, by the Liver- 
pool Salvage Association. The “ Hyaena ” is a famous craft. 
She was a Government gun-boat in the Chinese wars, and in com- 
mand of no less a person than General Gordon. Fitted up as 
she is with steam winches, electric light, and other apparatus 
employed in salvage work, she forms an admirable vessel for the 
peaceful purpose to which she is devoted during the three days 
the trip usually lasts. If her flat bottom and heavy spars permit 
of the possibility of mal de mer being thrown into the bill of fare, 
that undesirable sauce is accepted as a necessary evil, or treated 
with indifference by her passengers ; if her not over-brilliant 
steaming power renders the journey a longer one than the average 
tourist might wish, there is the yarn and the song and good 
company to make the hours pass pleasantly until the seat of 
operation is reached. 
On May 23rd a party of some thirty biologists from Liver- 
pool, Sheffield, Manchester, Bangor and Edinburgh took ad- 
vantage of freedom from engagements and fine weather to revisit 
the biological station, and carry out dredging and other biological 
operations on the Welsh coast. Some of the party left by 
ordinary passenger steamer, and arrived at Puffin Island in 
time to do some collecting on the shores at low tide. The island 
was aglow with pink and blue under the rays of the afternoon 
sun. The wild hyacinth and the sea thrift, safe from the sacri- 
legious hand of the vandal “ Field Clubist,” clothe the steep slopes 
with a variegated garment of blue and pink, lined with a golden 
fringe of Teucrium Scorodonia, and striped with the humble but 
ever-lovely daisy. Round the corners of the jagged cliffs the 
old-fashioned red-billed puffins watched us with inquisitive but 
fearless eyes, knowing right well that they and their nests were 
as safe as if they were floating in mid-Atlantic, and majestic 
gulls eyed us with curious interest as we scrambled beneath 
them, searching for their humbler relatives in each rock-pool 
and gull}-. With countless myriads of living forms hidden 
beneath the waves, or left behind by the tide on the shores, 
all waiting to be looked for and courting examination, surely 
the self-styled “ naturalist ” (!), who gathers but to cast away, 
might well give poor Mother Earth permission, at least for 
a few years, to reclothe, if she can, her bosom, torn bare by 
his selfish ignorance. In what respect is science benefited by 
the information which greeted me in a daily paper the morning 
I returned, that “ Miss So-and-So had secured the prize of the 
day by collecting the rare Lloydia serotina ; ” or, that “ Mr. 
Somebody had succeeded in unearthing a very rare fern.” 
Later in the evening the “ Hyaena ” arrived, and anchored 
off the island for the night. The ifiterior of the little kitchen of 
the station presents a lively scene at these annual reunions. 
