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DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING AND FRSSERTING MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 
All alcoholic specimens should have alcohol in. containers (bottles) 
brought up to proper strength after first day if possible, or certainly 
on second day after original preservation, and once again after another 
day or two. Alcohol in large tank might be watched so it does not fall much 
below 70$; formalin injection, however, usually makes up for the depletion 
in strength of alcohol. 
Marine animals had best be preserved in 70$ alcohol, but if alco- 
hol is unobtainable, a 5$ solution of formalin will answer. One part of 
commercial formalin to twenty parts of water, either fresh or salt, will 
make about a 5$ solution. 
The bottles should never be filled more than two-thirds full of 
specimens. Otherwise, there is not enough preserving fluid in the bottle 
to pickle them properly. 
Under no circumstances should raw cotton be put in any of the 
bottles. If you feel that packing material is necessary, use soft paper, 
but usually when the bottle is filled with liquid to the shoulder, but 
not above, the contents will ride without damage. 
Be sure to label every lot of specimens. Labels are included. 
They should be used, because the paper is of durable quality. Pencils are 
also included. A soft pencil may be used for writing labels. We prefer 
Higgins Eternal Ink, allowed to dry, not blotted, before label is put in 
liquid. 
PIAMTON. etc . 
For plankton and other small, near microscopic forms , a conical 
townet of fine bolting cloth will serve admirably for making collections. 
This can be dragged behind a boat, or, if weighted, can be thrown from the 
shore to a distance of from thirty to forty feet, care being taken as it 
is drawn in to collect as little as possible of floating debris or of mud 
if it strikes the bottom near shore. The glass tube supplied with the tow- 
net should be tied tightly in the end of the net for us. After the tow has 
bee ': made, wash contents of net down into tube, in order that they may be 
readily transferred to the bottle or vial in which they are to be preserved. 
After contents of bottle or vial settle, add undiluted commercial formalin 
to the extent of an estimated 1/20 of the volume of liquid in the container. 
If pteropods or calcareous organisms are to he saved, the sample must be 
preserved in alcohol-after settling, carefully decant enough liquid to ^ 
make room for enough 95$ or full strength alcohol to result in about a 70$ 
alcoholic solution. To facilitate settling in the first place, add a few 
drops of formalin, which quickly kills all living things in the tow. 
