THE EFFECTS OF THE RECENT OCTOBER GALE 7 



growing alongside the shore west of Granton were under- 

 mined and overthrown. 



It is not, however, the object of the present notes to 

 enlarge upon the damage done to property by the storm, 

 but to give some indication of its effects on certain members 

 of the marine fauna of the Firth of Forth as observed by 

 myself on various parts of the coast between North Berwick 

 and Cramond. On 2Oth October I walked along the beach 

 from Levenhall to Cockenzie for the purpose of seeing what 

 had been cast ashore there. I next examined the shore 

 from Portobello westwards towards Leith. Then followed 

 excursions from North Berwick to Gullane, Longniddry to 

 Gosford, and Granton to Cramond. 



If one may judge by the paucity of positive evidence 

 met with on the beach, the fatalities among the feathered 

 frequenters of the Firth must have been wonderfully few a 

 young Gannet, two Shags, a Guillemot, a Herring Gull, and a 

 Kittiwake being the only dead birds I noticed myself. A 

 Storm Petrel, however, was picked up near Dunbar, and 

 another was got at Cramond ; and Mr. R. Godfrey found 

 the remains of a Pomatorhine Skua near Bo'ness. 



I had hoped to find some of the rarer fishes washed 

 ashore, but in this I was sadly disappointed ; for, with the 

 single exception of a specimen of the Four-bearded Rockling 

 (Motella cimbrid} kindly handed to me by Mr. Godfrey from 

 the shore between Leith and Portobello, nothing uncommon 

 came under my notice. Indeed, examples of any species of 

 fish, save one, were decidedly scarce. The Cat or Wolf Fish 

 (AnarrhicJias lupus] was this exception, and it was a notable 

 one. Hundreds were cast up on the beach in the neighbour- 

 hood of North Berwick. On 26th October I counted no 

 less than 204 between the harbour and a point opposite the 

 island of Fidra, and many more were no doubt buried 

 beneath the tons of tangle (Laminarza), wrack (Fucus\ and 

 other sea-weeds heaped at the farthest corner of every little 

 bay. Over thirty were to be seen in a small bay between 

 Gosford and Aberlady, and numbers were also stranded, I 

 was told, in the vicinity of Dunbar. The majority of those 

 I saw were from two to three feet in length : the largest 

 measured was 3 feet 5 inches, while a few were not more 



