mals soft or gelatinous grouped as moluscs, worms or zoophytes, of which somelive isolated, others in society. The greatest part of these animals arc unknown,and their study, is very important, as they give us, general notions on the organi-sation of beings and on the diversity of forms under which living nature showsherself.

Surgeons and amateurs of natural history travelling on board ships might pro-cure us a great number of these curious animals.

It is suflicient 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 preparea note which indicates the latitude of the place, where they are taken, if they livesolitary or in society, if they are phosphorescent, if they inhabit a certain depthor the" surface of the sea. the colors of gelatinous animals not keeping well inliquor, it is very important to mention them.

Rocks, seaweed, the bottom of the sea are covered with shells of a gelatinousor flesh-look aspect of very bright colors, that may be mistaken for lifeless bo-dies ; yet they are formed by the aggregation of a crowd of little microscopic ani-mals, whose organisation is'very varied; care should be taken to remove themwith the blade of a knife, and'thesc beds, not generally very thick, should beplunged in spirits of wine, taking care to note their colo'r, which quickly disap-pears.

It would be useful to collect numerous sponges, and to preserve them inalcohol.

There exist, in the depths of the sea, a multitude of animals which do not appearon the surface, and which arc entirely unknown. They are obtained with thedrag; frequent use should be made of the drag from several fathoms up to thegreatest depths; that is as far as ISO fathoms.

Not less care should be taken to collect the land shells as those of the sea.Fossil shells are likewise of great interest.

Very frail shells, oursins, sea-slars, etc., should be wrapped in cotton andplaced', each one apart in a box. It would be well to wash in chalk water oursinsand sea-stars; the greatest number possible of these animals should be preservedin spirits of wine, taking care to surround them with thread, or even fine linen orcotton, and, afterwards, wound with thicker linen or several turns of thread, soas to hinder the points or spines from falling. The madrepores of a certain volumeshould be fixed by wire to the bottom of the box in which they are placed, butthese frail substances would arrive in better order, if each specimen was placedin a box apart.

The shell-fish should be placed in alcohol. The outer shell, when it is spiral,should be broken at the upper part and at several points of the spire, to let theliquor run in, so that the whole animal may be preserved; it is possible, followingthis indication, to have shell fish in such order that they may be dissected, evenafter being a very long time in the collections.

In calm or gentle breezes, it is well to have ready a gauze net to seize the seamolluscs, whose number is considerable. They should be watched and drawnseveral times a night, for it is probable that the' spirule will be found at the sur-face of the water. Fishes should be opened to find this same spirule which isdoubtless caught by them; the other Cephalopodcs are not less numerous or lesscurious to study.

There is a class of beings called marine worms or Annelides , of which but a fewkinds are known, because iittle pains have been taken to collect them; these ani-mals frequent, generally the shores of the sea, a great number live in the inters-tices of madrepores, several make deep holes in the sand or in the mud. Withspades and hammers they could be easily procured; it would be necessary to pre-serve them in alcohol,'as the greatest part of these kinds make themselvessheaths, it would be well to collect them and put them in spirits of wine. Ordi-narily these animals quickly change color; it would be well to note their color; itwould be always well to do’this for the leeches, whose colors disappear as soon asthey are dead. The attention of naturalists should be directed towards the lom-brics or earth-worms. These animals could be sent us alive as well as all the landmolluscs, by sending them in closed boxes containing a little earth or dampmoss.