Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/324

Rh laid, filling up all hollows, and so pressing the whole when the box was shut, as to prevent any motion of the stones. The specimens arrived in the best condition, even the delicate Delesseriæ being uninjured.

Many animals may be forwarded in the same way. The Mollusca, many of the Echinodermata, several of the Crustacea, and all the Actiniæ are transmitted with more ease and less danger thus than in water. A handful of loose weed, wet with sea-water, to keep a moist atmosphere around them, may be thrown into a canister or jar, and the animals placed in among it. The vessel should not be filled, nor should any pressure be allowed on the animals; the weed too, though fresh, must be plucked, as pieces of rock would be injurious to the more tender animals.

Fishes, however, many Crustacea, most of the Annelida, all Medusæ, and the more delicate Zoophytes, require to be sent in sea-water. I sometimes used wide-mouthed jars of stone-ware, with watertight screwed tops, several of which may be packed in a hamper; at other times a large 12 gallon zinc pail, protected by a wicker case, with a screw lid, of which the central part was perforated with minute holes; at others, four small zine cans, of square form, with perforate tops, fitted into an open box, like case-bottles in a wine-hamper. All of these modes answer well; I know not to which I should give the preference; except that for Fishes the large pail is decidedly the best. If heavy stones or oyster-shells, very rich in Zoophytes and Annelides, be required, a common cabbage-net may be suspended from the lid of the pail in mid-water; the stones or shells, being put into this