All the specimens of fossil plants, which may be addressed to the museum, should be wrapped with care, in two or three papers; those which have delicate impressions should be covered in their face with cotton or lint, above all if the rock or stone is tender; if the samples are thin and fragile, as often arrives with impressions upon slates, they should be placed in separate boxes. The boxes should be proportionate to the size of the samples, so as to be filled compactly that they may not be shaken in transportation; fossil should not be put in the same case whith dried plants or glass cases. Without these precautions the samples would rub and the impressions be effaced.
CHAPTER III.
ZOOLOGY.
Zoophytes, Worms and Moluscs.—The sea is peopled by an infinity of animals soft or gelatinous grouped as moluscs, worms or zoophytes, of which some live isolated, others in society. The greatest part of these animals are unknown, and their study is very important, as they give us general notions on the organisation of beings and on the diversity of forms under which living nature shows herself.
Surgeons and amateurs of natural history travelling on board ships might procure us a great number of these curious animals.
It is sufficient to take them with a net, to wash them well in warm water, to put them in alcohol with the precautions that we shall point out, and to prepare a note which indicates the latitude of the place where they are taken, if they live solitary or in society, if they are phosphorescent, if they inhabit a certain depth or the surface of the sea. The colors of gelatinous animals not keeping well in liquor, it is very important to mention them.
Rocks, sea weed, the bottom of the sea are covered with shells of a gelatinous or flesh-look aspect of very bright colors, that may be mistaken for lifeless bodies; yet they are formed by the aggregation of a crowd of little microscopic animals, whose organisation is very varied; care should be taken to remove them with the blade of a knife, and these beds, not generally very thick, should be plunged in spirits of wine, taking care to note their color, which quickly disappears.
It would be useful to collect numerous sponges, and to preserve them in alcohol.
There exist, in the depths of the sea, a multitude of animals which do not appear on the surface, and which are entirely unknown. They are obtained with the drag; frequent use should be made of the drag from several fathoms up to the greatest depths; that is as far as 150 fathoms.