ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA.

147

feeding as they go these, mingled with the varied contour and colour of delicate sea-plants, form a picture which has its prototype nowhere but in fairyland.

"The sounds and seas, each creek and bay,
With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals
Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales,
Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft
Bank the mid sea: part single, or with mate,
Graze the sea-weed their pasture, and through groves
Of coral stray; or sporting with quick glance,
Show to the sun their waved coats dropped with gold;
Or, in their pearly shells at ease, attend

Moist nutriment; or under rocks their food
In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal
And bended dolphins play: part huge of bulk,
Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
Tempest the ocean: there leviathan,
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep,
Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims,
And seems a moving land; and at his gills
Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out, a sea."

MILTON.

AMONG the amusements of the sea-shore there is, perhaps, none so capable of yielding a varied pleasure to a person whose taste for Natural History is awakened, as dredging, where it can be carried on under favourable circumstances. It is not on every coast that dredging can be practised. On some, the surf is habitually too great to admit of boating, as on parts of the west of Ireland, where a rock-bound shore presents no harbours for boats, and the fishermen are destitute of any other than canvas canoes, totally unfit for the purposes of dredging. On these coasts the broad waves of the Atlantic, continually rolling in, keep up a troubled

NATURALIST'S DREDGE.

149

water, in which the pursuits of the deep-sea naturalist can rarely be carried on. In other places, a rocky, or as it is technically called a foul, bottom, presents insuperable obstacles to the use of a dredge.* It is only, therefore, in certain favoured localities that dredging can be resorted to as an amusement by the frequenter of the sea-shore. Land-locked bays and harbours, where a quiet water flows over a smooth or a shingly bottom or lies on oyster- or scallop-beds, are the favourite ground for the amateur dredger; and these will generally yield him abundance of sport for the length of a summer-day.

Those who have never seen a dredge may wish to have one described. There are several varieties of the instrument. The common

one, with a single scraper, being in use among the fishermen on most parts of the coast, needs no description, as it may

generally be had by

inquiring of your boatman; but there is another kind, to which the name of Naturalist's Dredge may be given, which

NATURALIST'S DREDGE,

possesses some advantages over the common dredge,

*N.B. A piece of leather fixed to the scraper is a good protection to the network of the dredge when passing over a rough gravelly bottom.

150

NATURALIST'S DREDGE.

and which can only be had by ordering it specially of a blacksmith. This kind was first recommended many years ago by Robert Ball, LL.D., the well-known zoölogist, and its value has been largely tested, especially in deep-sea dredging. It is an iron rectangular frame, made with a scraper at each side, and having a bag attached to it in the usual manner. Its handles are moveable, being connected by eyelet holes with the bars of the frame below, and united, where they join above, by a ring and screw, so that when you wish to pack up the dredge, the handles, on the ring being unscrewed, fold up, and the whole fits into a small compass. This compactness is one advantage of this kind of dredge, as it renders it much more easy of carriage. But its great value lies in the double scraper, which makes it a matter of no consequence on which side the instrument is thrown down. It cannot be reversed. The top and bottom being alike, it is a matter of indifference which shall scrape the ground. In working with a common dredge, if the instrument be not carefully thrown down it is very liable to overset, and unless it fall with the scraper in the proper position, it will not collect anything. The Naturalist's Dredge cannot overset, because either side scrapes equally well. And this, when dredging in deep water, is a quality of the greatest value.*

* Since the publication of the previous edition of this volume Dr. Ball has improved the construction of his dredge, by shortening the handles to the length of the frame, and substituting for the parts cut off, chains, which are connected by a plain ring. This change obviates the necessity of unscrewing the ring when you wish to pack up the dredge, which is therefore always ready for work at a mo

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151

We will suppose the dredger afloat, on a fine day and in a favourable locality, furnished with his dredge,

ment's notice. The flexibility of the chain also increases the biting power of the scraper. The joint connecting the handle with the frame has also been improved, as represented in the following figure. The frame is only about a foot long: the whole apparatus may therefore be packed up, to fit in the pocket of your great-coat. Galvanized iron is the best to resist the action of the sea-water.

DREDGE.

The following letter to Dr. Ball, from N. B. Ward, Esq., of FernHouse notoriety, contains the testimony of two well-known practical naturalists to the great utility of his dredge, and the facility of using it.

"MY DEAR SIR,

66

Clapham, 8 Sept. 1853.

“You will be pleased, although not surprised, to hear a good account of your little dredge. My friend, Dr. Budd, of Plymouth, had always used the common oyster-dredge, requiring a large boat and the labour of two men. We fairly tested the merits of both by