84 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
shells of different types according to the differing species of the
Hydra Tuba, the single valves were then lashed to large pieces
of slate convexity upward which prevented mud getting into the
shell, and the slate was fastened by cord to short stakes pushed
into the bed of the pool. Fucus vesiculosus and sometimes
F. nodosus were used, when attached to stones, to hide the
shells from too-curious gaze. Even these precautions did not
save me: some enthusiastic fishermen fished up, with immense
difficulty, shells weighing pounds, smashed deliberately the
heavy slates and flung the shells away where they fell face
upwards. Even then, after exposure to a hard dry cold wind
for many hours, about twelve out of 200 Aurelia Hydra Tubae
survived, though some were badly deformed.
In November of one year, in a thick fog, I went out at
9.30 p.m. in the darkness, to try and find out if the shells were
all right. I found something wrong with the tides and I had
to remain knee-deep in water for half-an-hour 1/4-mile from land,
with a 12ft. creek near by invisible in the fog, with no marks
and no bearings. Yet I found my pool and my shells and
brought them back to safety; their loss would have meant
the loss of three years' work.
On the 10th January, 1932, seeing some bawleys lying very
close to where I knew my pool should be, I felt very anxious,
since it was blowing a gale and they were riding to a "long
scope of cable," which the boats could not lift. That night
I went out in total darkness and searched for about an hour,
one-third of a mile out. Ultimately I found my pool com-
pletely obliterated; there was about 5 inches of water in spots
and I was able to trace the position of my shells solely by the
remains of its outline and by the fact that the bladders of the
fucus permitted the fronds to project to within an inch or two
of the surface. I recovered my shells and polyps from a depth of
mud of 18 inches or more—alive. In despair, I put them in
the bathing pool in darkness after incredible trouble, in water
so cold that it could not be endured for more than two consecutive
minutes; before my polyps could strobilate the shells were
pulled up and taken away by immature specimens of the genus
Homo to decorate a fresh water aquarium at a public school!
Even then I left no stone unturned to recover the shells, which
I eventually did. Who shall say that there is no adventure,