Some persons set up a wheel, &c., of their own, and operate upon their treasure at home. I do not recommend this course to any one, unless he were the son of a lapidary, as Achilles was “son of Peleus,” and intend to devote himself to the occupation. For most amateurs it will be found difficult. It is five to one that a young hand signalizes his apprenticeship by spoiling his best agates, cutting his fingers, and damaging his machinery. The only advantage, as far as I know, which such a plan may possess, is that you might try some curious experiments in working at odd pebbles. A lapidary’s implements, if complete as they ought to be, will cost him from seven to ten pounds. About five pounds’ worth of diamond is a very good commencing stock. Five pounds more will fit up his shop with a counter and drawers to lock, and his work-room with a table, stool, hammers, a few cloths, and a good lens. This is all that he requires, besides knowledge and patience. Suppose the entire outlay should amount to twenty pounds; in a good watering-place, on the south coast of England, he ought to make from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds a year, without doing any night-work. But by day he must not spare hands nor eyes: and he cannot afford to make any serious mistakes with his customers. If he cuts a fine choanite the wrong way, or mutilates a rare alcyonite, or robs a promising “landscape-pebble” of its pellucid sky, it is well-nigh over with his professional reputation; and that once gone, he will get little custom of value. When I was last in Ventnor, the sea had thrown up some singularly fine pebbles for several successive tides. Three working lapidaries rented houses in the town; but all the more valuable orders went to one of them. This man knew admirably well how to handle almost any stone which was brought to him; while his two brethren in the craft, though both of them hard-working men, were comparatively ignorant. They were like quack-doctors, and he was a learned professor. CHAPTER III. THE CONTENTS OF A GOOD BEACH, AND HOW TO OBTAIN THEM. I have always been fond of trying conclusions with Nature at first hand. When a boy at school, I learnt to swim by following some bigger boys, who could swim already, into water which was quite out of all our depths. I had never till then tried, except in shallow places, which, whatever people may think, afford no criterion of how it will fare with you in a drowning current. On this occasion we swam about fifty yards, in ten-foot water, not without trepidation at first on my part, but towards the end I gained breath and confidence. After that, I never had any difficulty, whether in lakes or rivers, and I have ventured into scores of them at all seasons, and that without the slightest previous notice of their depth or temperature.