22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



boulders lying around, piled here, and scattered there, where left 

 by the last storm which rolled them. For seven or eight miles up 

 the loch the shore on either side is flat, and sandy, or gravelly, 

 with numerous winding bays. On the west shore, at Kii'kcolm, 

 there is a long, narrow, shelving bank of sand, called the Scaur, 

 running obliquely into the loch about a mile, and not entirely 

 covered by the sea at spring-tides. Between the point of the 

 Scaur and the opposite shore is the narrowest part. Looking 

 down from Stranraer at the head, Ailsa Craig in the distance 

 appears almost to block up the precipitous portals and shut in 

 the loch. 



One day was devoted to the eastern shore, and two to the 

 western — at least, so long as the short hours of November afforded 

 light, while the tide was by no means favourable, it being low 

 water from 4-30 to 7-30 — too early in the morning, and too late in 

 the afternoon to permit of objects being distinctly visible; conse- 

 quently, there was no opportunity of examining the shores beyond 

 half tide, and our collections cliiefly consisted of sj)ecimens floated 

 in or washed ashore. 



I. — Marine Alg^. 



The effect which a slight change of locality produces on their 

 distribution was brought very prominently into notice on our first 

 walk along the shore. 



Laurencia obtiisa, a plant liitherto unknown to us in the upper 

 waters of the Firth of Clyde, was found in very great abundance 

 floating in or washed upon the beach ; hardly a piece of Fucus 

 serratus was seen without more or less of this species growing upon 

 it. When fresh, it is of a dark purple colour, which is apj^arently 

 very soon lost on exposure to the light, assuming a pretty orange 

 tint, which gradually fades into yellow and white as the bleaching 

 process goes on. All the specimens we observed on the shore had 

 been washed in ; for, though very abundant on Fucus serratus, it 

 was more rarely observed on F. vesiculosus — a plant growing at a 

 higher level, and, at the same time, less common in the loch than 

 F. serratus. It was also seen attached to stones, and most abundant 

 on the oyster bed; hardly a shell came up without being orna- 

 mented with tufts of it. It was not so common at Kirkcolm, near 

 the mouth of the loch, nor on the eastern shore — but this may have 

 arisen solely from the strong north-easterly wind drifting all the 



