DREDGING OFK PORTINCROSS, AYRSHIRE. ISO' 



XVII. 



DREDGING OFF PORTINCROSS, A YRSHIRE, 



BY ALEX. SOMERVILLE, B.SC, F.L.S. 



[Read 28th February, 188S.] 



To one who has had the opportunity of working 

 with the dredge, it is a source of some satisfaction 

 to visit a locality previously untried, or in which it 

 is known that little has been done by others. I do 

 not mean it to be inferred that only in previously 

 undredged localities are marine organisms, interest- 

 ing from their rarity, likely to be found. Experience 

 proves the contrary, as, for example, in Lamlash Bay, 

 where hardly anyone has worked steadily, even for 

 a few days, without adding to its fauna-record. 



As the Society is aware, an exhaustive dredging 

 of the Clyde estuary was conducted in 1885, in the 

 Medusa, by our Corresponding Member, Dr. J. R. 

 Henderson, under the superintendence of Dr. John 

 Murray of the Challenger. During that season very 

 many parts of the Firth and adjoining lochs, from 

 Kilbrannan Sound and the South of Arran to Loch 

 Long and the Gareloch, were more or less carefully 

 explored, the attention of the expedition being 

 chiefly directed to the Crustacea. Except, however, 

 perhaps, in the case of Mr. Frank Coulson, the work 

 of the occasional dredger in the Clyde has, during 

 the last ten years, been mainly carried on in circum- 

 scribed areas, such, for instance, as off the Tan Spit 

 (Cumbrae), in and about Rothesay Bay, in the Kyles, 

 in Lamlash Bay, and off Tarbert. We are, in conse- 

 quence, in possession of lengthy records of species 

 from these selected spots, while of other places less 

 frequented we know but little. It is doubtless the 

 case that, where time for it could be given, system- 

 atic work in many of the less-visited localities would 



