Little "Wee Tot" wishes to say that she is getting a great many requests for ocean curiosities. She can not possibly answer all the letters, but whoever will send her a box of pretty curiosities in minerals, insects, birds' eggs, skulls and skeletons of reptiles, rare postage stamps, coins, relics, Revolutionary mementos, ancient newspapers, or anything else that is of value, shall receive an equivalent in things from the ocean.
Last week "Wee Tot" received through the Post-office a beautiful Indian bow and three arrows from the Indian country, and yesterday she received fifty-six baby water-snakes and some beautiful butterflies.
With much love to you, dear Young People,
"Wee Tot" Brainard,
257 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
I can give some good directions to Daisy F. for pressing sea-weeds. The implements used are a dish of water, a camel's-hair brush, sheets of paper, blotting-paper, and linen or cotton rags. After cleaning all the sand and dirt from the weeds, put one in a dish of water, and slip a sheet of paper under it. Then lift it carefully nearly out of the water, and arrange all the little branches naturally with the brush. Now lay the paper which contains the weed on a piece of blotting-paper: over it put a rag, so that the weed is entirely covered by it, and over that another piece of blotting-paper, and on this in turn lay another sheet of paper upon which a weed has been floated. Proceed in this manner until you have a pile ready. Place it between two boards, and leave it under heavy pressure for three or four days, until it is dry. Then remove the blotting-papers and rags very gently, taking care not to pull the sea-weeds from the paper on which they are pressed.
William A. L.
When floating certain kinds of sea-weeds on to the paper it will be found necessary to cut away, with a sharp, fine-pointed scissors, many superfluous stems and branches, as otherwise the sea-weed when pressed will present a matted appearance, and much of the delicacy be lost.