Peter Gray

“ The finest collections of shells, however, are to be made at the sea-side, for the marine mollusca are both more varied in kind and more abundant than the land and fresh-water ones, and quite an extensive collection may be made in the course of an afternoon's ramble along the shore; it is necessary, however, to carefully reject such specimens as are worn by having been rolled by the waves upon the beach, as they are not of any great value in a collection; it is better, in fact, if possible, to go down to the rocks at low water and collect the living specimens. ”

“ Living Diatoms are found on aquatic plants, on rocks and stones, under water or on mud, presenting themselves as coloured fringes, cushion-like tufts, or filmy strata. In colour the masses vary from a yellowish brown to almost black. They are difficult, both when living and dead, to separate from foreign matter; but repeated washings are effectual in both cases, and, for the living ones, their tendency to move towards the light may also be taken advantage of. When only the shells are wanted for mounting, the cell contents are removed by means of hydrochloric and nitric acid. ”

“ Where the ground is made of chalk or limestone, they will be found most abundant; for as the snail's shell is composed of layers of animal tissue, strengthened by depositions of calcareous earthy-matter which the creature gets from the plants on which it feeds, and these in their turn obtain from the soil—it naturally follows that the snail prefers to dwell where that article is most abundant, as an hour's hunt on any chalk-down will soon show. ”

“ Thus the animal kingdom is divided, first of all, into Sub-kingdoms, then each Sub-kingdom into so many Classes containing those which have further characteristics in common, the Classes into Orders, the Orders into Families, the Families into Genera, and these again into species or kinds. ”

“ Many Algæ are beautifully coloured, even when growing at depths to which very little light penetrates. As in their vegetative organs, so in their reproductive, Algæ exhibit many modifications of structure without much real difference. In the green sea-weeds reproduction is effected by simple cell division in the unicellular species, and by spores resulting from the union of the contents of two cells in the others. ”

“ In quiet land-locked bays with a sandy or muddy bottom, it sometimes extends to forty feet in length, forming extensive meadows, obstructing the passage of boats, and endangering the lives of swimmers entangled in its slimy cords, whence probably its other name of "dead men's lines." ”

“ It is advisable to carry a few bottles for the very small and delicate plants, and care should be taken to keep apart, and in sea-water, any specimens of the Sporochnaceæ; for they are not only apt to decay themselves but to become a cause of corruption in the other weeds with which they come in contact. These bottles should always be carried in the bag or pocket, never in the hand.
Sea-weeds, as every visitor to the coast knows, are torn up in great numbers by the waves, especially during storms, and afterwards left on the shore by the retiring tide. ”

“ The object of the young collector should be to obtain examples of as many genera as possible, since a collection in which a great number of genera are represented is far more useful and instructive than one composed of a great many species referable to but few genera. He will also find it very convenient to separate the British Shells from his general collection, sub-dividing them for convenience into "Land and Fresh-water," and "Marine." ”

“ But what we fail to accomplish in our impatience, nature effects by slow degrees, and if you will turn over the weathered pieces and blocks lying about, you will soon find plenty of fossils sticking out all over them; by a judicious use of hammer and chisel any of these may be detached and added to your stock, each being separately packed in paper and the locality written on the outside. Some seventy or eighty feet is all that is visible of this limestone ”

“ More boxes and trays can, from time to time, be added as occasion requires, and thus the whole collection may be kept in good working order at a trifling cost. A more durable form of cheap cabinet may be made by collecting the wooden boxes so common in grocers' shops, cleaning them with sand-paper, staining and varnishing them outside, and lining them inside with paper; or, if handy at carpentering, you may make all your boxes, or even a real cabinet, for yourself. ”

“ Algæ, popularly known as sea-weeds, although many species are inhabitants of fresh water, or grow on moist ground, may be briefly described as cellular, flowerless plants, having no proper roots, but imbibing nutriment by their whole surface from the medium in which they grow. As far as has been ascertained, the total number of species is about 9000 or 10,000. Many of them are microscopic, as the Desmids and Diatoms, others, as Lessonia, and some of the larger Laminariæ (oarweeds) , are arborescent, covering the bed of the sea around the coast with a submarine forest ”

“ Of all sea-weeds they are also perhaps of the greatest use to man. One of the most interesting among them is the Gulfweed (Sargassum bacciferum) , occupying a tract of the Atlantic extending over many degrees of latitude. Pieces of it, and of its congener, S. vulgare, are occasionally drifted to our shores, and they consequently find a place in works on British Algæ, although they have no claim to be considered native plants. On rocky coasts the various species of Fucus occupy the greater part of the space between tide-marks, the most plentiful being Fucus vesiculosus. ”

“ It is stated that in the collection made by Sir Joseph Hooker in the Himalayas the species closely resemble our own.
In the next group, Confervaceæ, we are introduced to forms more like the general notion of what a plant should be. The individuals of which it consists are composed of threads, jointed, either simple or branched, mostly of a grass-green colour, and propagating either by minute zoospores or by metamorphosed joints. They are found both in fresh and salt water, and in damp situations. The number of species is very great. A considerable number consist of unbranched threads ”

“ The best time to go out, is just after a warm shower, when all the grass and leaves are still wet, for the land-snails are very fond of moisture, and the shower entices them out of their lurking-places. ”

“ Mollusca are to be found all over the globe, from the frozen north to the sun-baked tropics, on the land or in [Pg 38] lakes, rivers, or seas—wherever, in fact, they can find the food and other conditions suitable for their growth and development; but the collector who is not also a great traveller, must of course rely for his foreign specimens upon the generosity of friends, or else procure them from dealers. In most districts of our own country, there are, however, to be found large numbers of shells whose variety and beauty will astonish and reward the efforts of any patient seeker. ”

“ Most of them are flints, and by diligent search you may find casts and impressions in these of sponges, shells, spines of sea urchins, etc. Flints, whether from gravel or their parent rock the chalk, are easiest broken by a light smart tap of the hammer, though when it is desired to shape them for the cabinet a soft iron hammer should be used, and the piece to be shaped placed on a soft pad on the knee, for when struck with a steel hammer flints splinter in all directions, and often through the very portion you most desire to preserve. In one spot we find a mass of sand included in the gravel ”

“ The White or Coralline Crag is generally of a pale buff colour, and is in places almost entirely composed of the remains of Polyzoa. These (formerly called Corallines, whence the name Coralline Crag) are beautiful objects for a low-power microscope, or pocket lens, and are easily mounted in deep cells on slides. The bits of shell and sand that stick to them should be carefully removed with the point of a needle. A very large number of shells occur in this crag: of bivalves, the Pecten is very abundant, and its valves are frequently thickly grown over with Polyzoa ”

“ The endochrome is believed to be fertilized by bodies developed in antheridia, the contents of each fertilized cell dividing into four ovate zoospores.
The last two groups of green sea-weeds consist chiefly of marine plants. Of these the first, Siphoneæ, is so called because the plant, however complicated, is composed invariably of a single cell. It propagates by minute zoospores, by large quiescent spores, or by large active spores clothed with cilia. It includes the remarkable genus Codium, three species of which inhabit the British seas. ”

“ Each coal seam is underlain by a bed of clay called "under-clay," containing the roots of the plants that grew on it. Some of the best impressions of ferns, etc., are to be obtained in the shaley beds forming the roof of the coal seam; many good specimens, however, are to be got by searching the refuse heap at the pit's mouth. Besides plants, the remains of fish are abundant in some of the beds of shale. And in Nova Scotia the bones of air-breathing reptiles and land snails have been discovered. ”

“ The fossils, save in the limestone bands, are not easy to find, but in places they are fairly abundant. Brachiopods are far more numerous than the Mollusca properly so-called. Of these, the genus Orthis was most abundant at about the close of this period. Certain beds of this age have received the name of Lingula Flags, owing this prevalence in them of the curious Brachiopod Lingula so like the species now living in some of the warm seas of the tropics. ”

“ The species of Elachista, composed of minute parasites, are, as well as unattractive like the Mesogloieæ, inconspicuous, but are beautiful objects when placed under the microscope. Myrionemæ are also parasitic, and even smaller than the plants of the preceding genus.
In the Dictyoteæ the frond is mostly flat, with a reticulated surface, which is sprinkled when in fruit with groups of naked spores or spore cysts. This tribe includes not a few of the most elegant among the Algæ. In structure they are coriaceous, and include plants both with broad and narrow, branched and unbranched fronds. ”

“ Another species greatly resembles a branched sponge, and the third forms a velvety crust on the surface of rocks. Another genus, Vaucheria, is of a beautiful green colour, forming a velvety surface on moist soil, on mud-covered rocks overflowed by the tide, or parasitic on other sea-weeds. The most attractive plants of this family are however those of the genus Bryopsis, two of which are found on the British shores. The most common one is B. plumosa, the fronds of which grow usually in the shady and sheltered sides of rock pools. ”

“ Layers of Septaria or cement-stones are of frequent occurrence. Sheppy is the great locality for London clay fossils, as the sea annually washes down large masses of the cliffs and breaks them up on the beach. A great many fossil fruits and seeds, remains of crabs, shells of Nautili, Volutes, and other mollusca, besides turtles, a species of snake, a bird with teeth, and a tapir-like animal, have at different times and in various places been found in this deposit, which sometimes attains a thickness of over 400 ft. ”

“ A dozen or more species found in the British seas are made use of, raw or prepared in several ways, as food for man. Of these edible Algæ, Dr. Harvey considers the two species of Porphyra, or laver, the most valuable. Berkeley says, "The best way of preparing this vegetable or condiment, which [Pg 4] is extremely wholesome, is to heat it thoroughly with a little strong gravy or broth, adding, before it is served on toast, a small quantity of butter and lemon juice." A species of Nostoc is largely consumed in China as an ingredient in soup. ”

“ To study geology properly, the rocks themselves must be visited and carefully observed, their appearance noted, and the fossils, if any, which they contain, collected. This necessitates many a pleasant walk into the open country to quarries and cuttings, or rambles along the sea-shore to cliffs which may be worth investigating, whilst botany, entomology, or any other congenial pursuit, may be followed on the way ”

“ Death by this process is instantaneous, and consequently painless; but to leave snails in cold salt water is to inflict on them the tortures of a lingering death; while for the brutality of gardeners and other thoughtless persons who seek to destroy the poor snail they find eating their plants by crushing it under foot on the gravel path, no words of condemnation are too strong, since it must always be borne in mind that snails have not, like [Pg 41] us, one nervous centre, but three, and are far more tenacious of life ”

“ It is the usual practice, but a mistaken one, to cut it off level with the hammer head, which is likely, under these circumstances, to come off after it has been in use for a time, whereas, by leaving a small portion of the wedged-out end projecting, this mischance is avoided, and your weapon will not fail even when used to drag its owner up a stiff ascent. It is better to shape and fix the handle yourself, as by this means you can not only cut it to fit your hand, but may rely upon its being properly fastened in. ”