When large quantities of bottom soil are brought up by the dredge or grab, the problem of sieving the material within a reasonable time presents itself. The usual practice is to wash the soil through a sieve or series of sieves, the finest being of the order of 1–2 mm aperture, according to the nature of the soil or the size of the animals to be collected. It is usually necessary to agitate the soil either by spraying with a hose or by shaking the sieve in a bath of water, in order that finer particles may pass through the sieve. Many of the more delicate animals are damaged by these methods, and Spooner & Moore (1940), working on the Tamar estuary, found it necessary to mix the mud carefully by hand with water to make a ‘soup’ before it could be sieved without damage to the fauna. For work at sea Hartman (1955) describes a machine by which sieving was accomplished with the aid of water sprays and mechanical agitation of the sieves with power provided by an electric motor.