The Sea Shore

by William S. Furneaux

One of the greatest difficulties besetting the young collector lies in the choice and construction of the cabinet or other store-house for the accommodation of the specimens that accumulate as time advances.

Of course, when expense is a matter of no great consideration, a visit to the nearest public or private museum to see the manner in which the specimens are housed, followed by an order to a cabinet-maker, will set the matter right in a short time; but it is probable that the majority of our readers are unable to fit up their museum in this luxurious style, and will either have to construct their own cabinets and store-boxes or to purchase cheap substitutes for them.

Where one has the mechanical ability, and the time to spare, the construction of a cabinet with the required number of drawers may be undertaken, and there is no better form of store than this. The whole should be made of well-seasoned wood, and the drawers should vary in depth according to the size of the specimens they are to contain. Some of these drawers may be lined with sheet cork, and the cork covered with white paper or a thin layer of cotton wool. This will enable some of the specimens to be fixed in their places by means of pins. As a rule, however, no pins will be required, and the specimens will be most conveniently arranged in shallow cardboard boxes, placed in rows in the drawer, a little cotton wool covering the bottom of each.

Failing the usual cabinet, the specimens may be stored in shallow trays or boxes, or even in the little cardboard cabinets so often sold for storing stationery &c. The best and cheapest things of this kind we have ever met with are the little cabinets, each containing either six or twelve drawers, made by Macdonald & Co., of Temple Row, Birmingham. By the use of such as these the specimens may be neatly stored away, and additions to match may always be made as the collection increases in magnitude.

The specimens should all be classified according to their positions in the animal or vegetable world, and accompanied by labels giving the name of species and genus, together with localities, habitats, &c. The outlines of classification may be studied from the later chapters of this work, in which the common objects of the sea shore are described in their scientific order, beginning with the lowest sub-kingdoms and classes; and further, it will be observed that the sub-kingdoms are divided into classes, the classes into orders, orders into families, families into genera, and that the genera contain a smaller or larger number of closely allied species.

The collection must be kept in a perfectly dry place, otherwise many of the specimens will be liable to develop moulds, and this will, of course, quite spoil their appearance. It is almost sure to be attacked by mites and other animal pests unless some means be taken to prevent their intrusion.

As regards the latter, it is well to know that it is far easier to prevent the intrusion of small animal pests than it is to exterminate them after they have once found an entrance; and so, from the very commencement of the formation of the collection, all drawers and boxes should be charged with some substance that is objectionable, if not fatal, to them. Small lumps of naphthaline (albo-carbon) put into the various compartments, and renewed occasionally as they disappear by evaporation, will generally suffice to prevent the entrance of all pests, but this substance is not effectual as an insecticide for the purpose of killing them after they are in.

Perhaps the best of all insecticides is the corrosive sublimate already mentioned, and this may be applied to any animal or vegetable object that is capable of providing food for museum pests, and it is difficult to find such an object on which they will not feed.

Many of the specimens that find a place in a museum have been temporarily preserved in spirit previous to being dried, and if a little corrosive sublimate was dissolved in this spirit, the specimens will have been rendered perfectly free from all attacks of marauders, since the spirit will have saturated the whole object, carrying with it the dissolved poison.

Most of the specimens that have not been treated by the above method would not suffer from a short immersion in spirit containing the corrosive sublimate; but in cases where it is considered inexpedient to do this, the same liquid may be applied to them by means of a soft brush. In this way even the dried botanical specimens may be rendered perfectly secure from attacks.