40 
OUR MARINE ALG.E. 
the igneous rocks that break up the shores of North Berwick— 
spent in perfect solitude, excepting the seagull and Solan 
goose—spent in peering into the natural aquaria, the little 
rocky pools, fringed and decorated with sea-weeds of every 
colour, and “beautiful as a dream”—these are hours that 
never can be forgotten. And sea-weeds are beautiful, both 
in form and colour, even when dead, if carefully and neatly 
displayed. I think the hundred mounted specimens I have 
brought, gathered and prepared by myself at different times— 
some twenty years ago, and some this year—compel admiration 
on asstlietic grounds. I thus mounted them that I might 
hang them on the walls of schoolrooms, as I do my flowering 
plants, and as I have done many times, to try to cultivate the 
taste of my poorer neighbours, and give them a love for pure 
pleasures in the study of simple things. There is a sense of 
the beautiful which God has implanted in every breast—this 
is my belief—and my effort has been to educate this sense of 
the beautiful by presenting natural pictures to the eye, as 
there are so many laudable attempts to gratify the ear by the 
concord of sweet sounds. I have often thought how attrac¬ 
tive the little homes of our artisans might be made by them¬ 
selves if they had a taste for natural history ; what cottage 
museums they might form for the delectation and instruction 
of their friends and neighbours ; and I have tried to foster 
the feeling—tried to make them partakers of my delightful 
recreations, though with little result. 
POSTSCRIPT. 
As questions were put to me in regard to the mounting 
of sea-weeds, I will add a few directions :— 
1. Wash your specimens in fresh water to free them from 
superfluous salt. 
2. Pour clean water into a vessel—a wash-hand basin— 
and put in your selected specimen, turning it about with the 
finger till the frond unfolds; then immerse your card or 
paper, cut to the requisite size, beneath the specimen, and 
move it about till it sinks in a natural position on the paper. 
3. Lift it from the water with great care, and slant it for 
a short time for the water to run off; then put it between 
sheets of blotting paper under slight pressure, that of a brick 
or book, having a sheet of stout card-board above and below. 
4. Change your blotting paper twice the same day, apply 
greater pressure as the drying proceeds, and in two days, in 
summer, your specimens will be ready for the herbarium. 
As a rule, the sea-weeds will adhere to the paper, but 
those of thicker texture will have to be secured by gum. 
