Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/49

22 though there for ever so brief a stay, may enjoy with the least possible trouble, the amœnities of zoological study in a soup-plate, or even in a tumbler. It is easy to knock off with a hammer, or even to dislodge with a strong clasp-knife, a fragment of rock on which a minute sea-weed is growing, proportioning the surface of leaf to the volume of water,—and you have an Aquarium. A wide-mouthed phial,—such, for instance, as those in which Sulphate of Quinine is commonly sold by the chymists,—affords a capital opportunity for studying the minute Zoophytes, Bryozoa, Nudibranch Mollusca, &c. as they may be examined through the clear glass sides with perfect ease, by the aid of a pocket-lens. The influence of light should be allowed to operate on the sea-weed, to promote the elaboration of oxygen, but at the same time, if the weather be warm, care must be taken that the subjects be not killed by the sun's heat.

Let me describe my ordinary mode of obtaining the sea-weeds which I transmitted to London.

Suppose the time to be the first or second day after full or new moon, when the tide recedes to its greatest extent, laying bare large tracts of surface that are ordinarily covered by the sea. This is the most suitable time for procuring sea-weeds, for these must be taken in a growing state; and hence the specimens which are washed on shore, and which serve very well for laying out on paper, are utterly useless for our purpose.

With a large covered collecting basket, a couple of wide-mouthed stone jars, a similar one of glass, two or three smaller phials, a couple of strong