NOTES 119 



Ligia oceanica (L.) in Stirlingshire and at Skerry vore 



On 23rd November 191 2, while looking for spiders and beetles 

 under stones lying among the grass on top of the shore embank- 

 ment immediately to the east of Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, I was 

 somewhat surprised to find scores of this "slater." They were 

 mostly young, not more than half grown apparently; and none 

 reached the size of examples I have collected at the mouth of the 

 Forth (North Berwick, Isle of May, etc.). The spot where they 

 were found is well above high-water mark, though no doubt it gets 

 drenched with spray during severe storms from the north and east. 

 Still further up the estuary, about half-way between Grangemouth 

 and Kincardine ferry, the species was again found on 1st March 

 1 9 13. The point of interest about these records is the distance of 

 the localities from the open sea. As a contrast in this respect, 

 I may mention that in August 19 15 I received from the late 

 Mr R. Wilson, lighthouse keeper, Skerryvore, a bottleful of very 

 large specimens from that outlying Hebridean rock. William 

 Evans, Edinburgh. 



The Effect of Kelp-cutting on Shore Animals. More 

 than once the suggestion has been made that the destruction of the 

 beds of seaweed on the coasts of America, for manufacture into 

 kelp, had a deleterious effect on the shallow-water animals in the 

 neighbourhood. The United States Bureau of Fisheries has put 

 this allegation to the test, careful examination having been made 

 of seaweeds, collected for kelp, before they were burned. It was 

 found that they harboured many species of lower animals, but no 

 evidence of the presence of fish themselves, of their eggs, or of 

 crayfish larvae was found. In the actual kelp beds down to a depth 

 of 8 or 10 feet a few small fishes were taken, but they were not of 

 edible kinds, and the growth of the seaweed is so rapid that the 

 work of three harvesters for three months did not affect appreciably 

 the amount at the surface of the water. There is little likelihood, 

 therefore, that the kelp industry affects to any extent the value of 

 the kelp-beds as nurseries for marine animals in their young stages. 



Pupa cylindracea, var. curta, in Wigtownshire. The 



examples recorded in my list (Scot. Nat., Nov. 191 5, pp. 273-4) as 

 taken by Mr Alex. Ross in roadside plantation between the Isle 

 of Whithorn and Port William, 1st August 1916, are of this variety; 

 Mr Taylor noted them as i\ x 1^- mm., with 5 whorls and rufous lip. 

 I shall be pleased to see further records of mollusca for this county. 

 W. Denison Roebuck, Leeds. 



