30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



induce sliore proprietors to lay down oyster beds and nurseries, 

 and that not many years will elapse before real natives, raised on 

 our own shores, appear in the market. 



IV. — Bay of Luce. 



Taking the train to Glenluce, situated about a mile from the 

 head of the bay on the eastern side, we spent a few hours on the 

 sands walking to Stairhaven, about two miles down on that shore. 



The head of the bay embraces a sweei? of perhaps five miles, 

 presenting an extensive tract of sandy dunes, which appeared to 

 extend along the western side. The river Luce enters at the 

 eastern angle. Eocky and j)recipitous cliffs, with intervening 

 bays, form the boundary on that side. 



Crossmg the shingly margin at the base of the rocks, we got on 

 to the sands, from which the tide had receded to about half-ebb. 

 Wlien nearly opposite to the headland which opens out the curve 

 in which Stairhaven is situated, we observed what seemed to be 

 a low, flat reef of barnacle-covered rocks, enclosing numerous 

 pools. At the base of this cliff, which rises nearly peri)endicidar, 

 the upper margin of the barnacles was eight feet above the shore 

 at the bottom, so that at high water the tide must cover this reef 

 to a depth of eight or ten feet. 



This reef was raised from six inches to a foot. On getting out 

 to it we were surprised to find no barnacles, but a honey-comb 

 looking surface on the sand. On breaking off a piece, it consisted of 

 a mass of sand -tubes filled with annelids, and the reef, in fact, was 

 one great colony. — A mass of sand, closely agglutinated together, 

 surrounding and enclosing the boulders, and firm to walk upon, 

 except where rock-pools or sand-pools at the base of boulders had 

 been nearly filled up, and a treacherous hollow left below into 

 which one's foot went down. In these pools the sand tubes were 

 curved upwards from the margin, so that the surface became 

 broader, and would gradually fill up the pool, leaving a conical 

 hollow lielow. Around the orifice of each tube there is a finer 

 and wider margin with a curved outline, which gives the honey- 

 comb appearance to the surface of the sand. Perhaps this 

 cup-shaped margin serves to collect the loose grains of sand 

 washed over them, and which the annelid, stretching itself 

 out of the tube by means of its bristles, lays hold of, and 

 builds into the new margin, and so increases the height of 



