at a Distance from the Sea. 145 



lanus is still slightly attached to the Venus or Tecten ; and the 

 spines of the Echinus are found clustered in the clay inclosing 

 its fragments ; so that they must have been either covered 

 by water to a considerable depth, or thrown on a beach not 

 much exposed to waves. Few of them, however, can be ex- 

 tracted entire, as several of the species are always in a state of 

 gritty chalk ; but many complete and beautiful specimens of 

 the Pecten can easily be procured. Few of their fragments ap- 

 pear on the exposed part of the beach, but, during summer, 

 many may be seen a few feet under water.''' 

 . We lately received several specimens of the Buccinitm la- 

 pillus, from Shetland, which were found alive on the mar- 

 gin of a lake in the island of Yell, about a mile and a 

 half from the sea. The lake has an outlet by a small ri- 

 vulet. The shells are somewhat thinner in their texture 

 than their congeners on the rocks of the neighbouring coast, 

 and are all of the banded variety of that shell, or crossed with 

 dark-coloured lines. That these shells had been carried to 

 that locality by water-fowl is not unlikely ; and the outer lip 

 of the shells being somewhat broken, may have occurred in 

 the attempt to extract the animal as food. But the fact of 

 the animals being alive when the specimens were picked up, 

 goes to prove that shell-fish may be brought to live in fresh 

 water ; and the experiments undertaken by Mr Arnold of 

 Guernsey at the suggestion of Dr MacCulloch, and the dis- 

 covery of live cockles at a distance from the sea by Mr Wi- 

 tham, leave little room to doubt that many species of fish 

 may be transported to, and live and propagate in, inland fresh 

 water ponds and rivulets. 



As the result of Dr MacCulloch's experiments may not be 

 generally known, we give a list of the species of fish naturally 

 belonging to the sea, which have been found to live in fresh 

 water. Those marked with an asterisk have been finally na- 

 turalized : 



Conger Oeater Lamprey * Plaice * Basse 



Torsk Lesser Lamprey Flounder Loach 



Sprat Stickleback Red Do. Red Do. 



Shad Coitus Quadricornis White Whale * Smelt 



Mom Mullet Cod ' Atherinc 



roL. iv. no. i. Jan. 182G. k 



