104 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
The fossils when collected must be classified, 
labelled, and arranged. You can place them in 
home-made trays, each tray to contain fossils of the 
same species ; don’t mix several species in one tray. 
Then the trays can be arranged in glass-topped 
boxes—those that may be had from drapers do 
very well—and the arrangement must be in genera, 
or families. The families must be ordered according 
to Classes, and so on. Each specimen must have a 
label something like this : 
Grnus: Pterichthys. 
Species: Millert. 
Formation: Old Red Sandstone. 
LocaLiry: Cromarty. 
If you like, you can add the English name of the 
specimen, if it has one, or the derivation of the 
scientific name. You should also make notes of 
any peculiar circumstances connected with the 
finding of your specimens. As your collection 
grows, you may find it useful to keep separate boxes 
for the various Classes of your fossils. Thus you can 
have a separate box for the Mollusca, another for 
the Arthropoda, and so on. Again, your fossils, or 
the boxes containing them, should be arranged 
according to Eras and Periods. Cambrian fossils 
come first, then Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, 
Carboniferous, and Permian. The boxes containing 
fossils of these Periods should have the general 
label : “‘ Fossils of the Paleozoic Era.” 
You will have heard of the old receipt for hare 
soup, which commenced ‘“‘ First catch the hare.” 
