Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/127
such rough or irregular objects and bring them to the surface, along with a miscellaneous assortment of star-fish, sea-urchins, crabs, shrimps, and hundreds of other creatures.
Wyville Thomson, in his interesting account of the dredging cruise of the Porcupine and Lightning, mentions one haul when the tangles contained not fewer than 20,000 sea-urchins, which "were warped through and through the hempen fibres and actually filled the tangles; and," adds Mr. Thomson, "they hung for days round the bulwarks like nets of pickling onions in a green-grocer's shop." At times the tangle, when it comes to the surface, is completely covered with curious little shrimplike creatures called Caprellas. Indeed, so many surprises await the dredger and tend to keep up the excitement, that this new sport cannot fail to interest and delight all who participate in it; and when the young dredgers return home they need not do so empty-handed, but may, if they choose, bring curiosities from the bottom of the sea that will not only astonish their parents, but most likely puzzle their teachers and professors.
Under the head of Taxidermy, among the autumn sports, will be found some hints which will aid the reader in preserving marine specimens for the cabinet or for future study.
