112 The Irish Nahiralist. Maj', 



itself being rocky, shows uo change, and below which the 

 foreshore was always narrower, and subject always to the 

 varying influence of the wind, the tide is as far in now at 

 two hours' flood as it was some few years ago at four hours' 

 flood. While high-w-ater mark remains approximately where 

 it was twent}^ years ago, the low-water line is not within 

 fully a quarter of a mile as far out from the shore as it used 

 to be — I mean the tide does not now ebb, by a quarter of a 

 mile or more, as far as it formerly did — and the water, when 

 the tide is in, is deeper to the extent of the thickness ol 

 the denudation plus the sinking. The force and volume of 

 the waves breaking on the beach or against the sea walls 

 are thus increased, besides which the formerly softening ejQfect 

 of the Zostera is gone, as those responsible for the up-keep 

 of the batteries and sea walls find to their cost. What has 

 been stripped away consisted of soft estuarine ooze or mud, 

 the accumulation of which had gradually, probably during 

 many centuries, covered the original harder bottom, and the 

 boulders that rested on it. A fewj^ears of artificial conditions 

 seem thus sufiicient to have undone the natural work of centuries. 

 Changes in the animal life of the foreshore have quickly 

 followed. The few remaining Holywood fishermen are now 

 able to dig bait within one hundred yards of the foot of 

 Shore Street, and along a considerable stretch running 

 parallel to the railwa}^ not farther away than that; while 

 they formerly could not procure an}- nearer than Marino. 



As to the birds : Curlew^s and Oyster-catchers are still seen 

 abundajitly ; but I think their numbers are diminished by 

 about one- fourth as compared w^ith thirty to fort}^ j'ears ago. 

 All the smaller waders, too, are less abundant, this remark 

 applying specially to Dunlins, of which one never now sees 

 the. immense flights that were the delight of both the orni- 

 thologist and the gunner some years ago. 



The quite recent filling in, in connection with the Musgrave 

 Channel; has dCvStroyed a great extent of the birds' former 

 convenient resting and feeding grounds in the reclaimed 

 lands between Conn's Water embankment and Queen's Island 

 and that locality, which, particularly in wet or stormy 

 weather, were frequented by great numbers of all the smaller 

 waders, which seemed not to venture on their long flights in 



