62 



MARINE FAUNA OF ST. ANDREWS. 



( Octopus) between tide-marks are noteworthy ; while in the 

 surrounding water are the rare prizes Triton nodifer, T. 

 cutaceuSj Cardium pajyillosum, Argiope decollata, and other 

 forms which, with the foregoing, are thrown in such pro- 

 fusion on the shell-beach at Herm — e. g. Calyptrcea chinensis, 

 Trochus MontaciUi, and Murex aciculatus. The line Pinna 

 rudis, though it has been found by Dr. Howden off Montrose, 

 is also entirely absent at St. Andi-ews. Neither do we find 

 the swanns of Trochus helicinus and T. grcenlandicus, Tri- 

 chotropis boreaUsy and their allies amongst the tangle- 

 roots, as in Shetland, nor the Terebratwlte, Lyonsia, Lepeta, 

 PunctureUa, Trochus amabilis, the Jeffreysice, Columbella ha- 

 liaeti, Pleurotoma nivalis^ P. carinata^ Scaphander librarius, 

 Philine angidata and P. nitida, Rossia papnlUfera, the Clios, 

 and the half hiindred new British forms discovered by Dr. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys in his frequent cruises in the surrounding 

 waters. The great beds, also, of Mytilus modiolus (called 

 "yoags "), which occur in from 3 to 15 fathoms near the shore 

 in many parts of the Zetlandic seas, present an interesting 

 conti-ast. It is this mussel (esteemed but a coarse bait at St. 

 Andrews) which is extensively employed by the Shetlanders ; 

 and in its collection many rare invertebrates are found amongst 

 the roots of the tangles and stones, which with the mussels 

 form huge muddy masses. The old 

 ten-toothed " dreg "noticed by the 

 accomplished Prof. Edward Forbes 

 is still the chief instrument in pro- 

 curing the shell-fish, and is much 

 more serviceable to the zoologist on 

 such ground than the dredge. In 

 the figure given by the facile pencil 

 of the great naturalist the rope is 

 attached to the eye of the di'eg ; 

 but in modem times the fishermen 

 more correctly attach it to the head 

 of the instrument (after the manner 

 of the ordinary dredge), and fix the 

 rope at the eye of the dreg by a 

 piece of spun yam ; so that if the dreg gets entangled the 



