LOCH CRERAN. 



JUNE, 1 88 1. 



[HE whole country has been looking so gay of 

 late, in the full blaze of the wonderful sunlight 

 we are blessed with, that on sea and shore alike 

 we have an embarras de rich esses of beauty, as well as of 

 life and growth. Two men were for hours hard at work 

 endeavouring to clear a small portion of sea-bottom from 

 the abundant growth of marine annuals, and found the 

 task too hard for them even in a long spring tide. Such 

 an enormous growth partially explains the teeming life of 

 the littoral in the summer time. Now is the time when 

 the few in our district with leisure, and love of that un- 

 Scottish fish, skate, can enjoy an hour's skate-spearing 

 when our flat friends come inshore from the deeper 

 waters, to deposit their strange eggs among the tangle in 

 shallow water. Yesterday one man speared seven in a 

 very short time on a small portion of sea bottom. To- 

 day we found the breeze too rough, and the bottom 

 consequently too much obscured to be able to make use 

 of the iron, so we floated rapidly over the tangle fronds, 

 casting unavailing glances into the general breadth of 

 shaded blacks and browns. The whole bottom was 

 completely obscured by a most unusually prolific growth; 

 even a great stretch, that we had flattered ourselves had 



