NOVEMBER, 1881. 89 



careful examination of the stems of those tangles thrown 

 ashore, to see if they were generally much weakened by 

 the pellucida, or sufficiently so to account in most cases 

 for their having yielded to old Ocean's notice of ejectment. 

 There were a goodly number of cases in which the stout, 

 tough stems were wholly uninjured by mollusc or any 

 other foe, except the error of its youth in laying hold of 

 a foundation incapable of supporting its manhood. In 

 these cases, the whole attachments had come away, 

 bringing with them the masses of barnacles (balani} to 

 which they had originally clung, and which had now failed 

 them in their hour of need, and left the stones clear alike 

 of barnacles and tangle. But by far the greater number 

 of stems were eaten into a narrow point at the base of 

 the portion thrown ashore, and this was often apparently 

 well up the stem eaten into great ruts, or eaten into the 

 distinct hole that showed the dimensions of the limpet 

 above alluded to. Many of these assaults were of a 

 character that scarcely admitted of the explanation that 

 they had been perpetrated by any shell-bearing mollusc, 

 more especially a circular excavation in the very centre 

 of the stem, and several inches deep, where the depreda- 

 tors had completely destroyed the power of the stem by 

 eating away the central base. The molluscs, for the 

 most part, where their assaults were distinctly traceable, 

 had confined themselves to the former portion just inside 

 the " bark ;" but these others ate the soft tender parts in 

 the interior. For long we failed to catch any individual 

 that could give a clue to the ravager until we came upon 

 a group of whitish grubs among the attachments of a stem 

 that was thrown well up the beach. Having finished 

 our examination we came upon another individual with 

 two curious dark eyes lying in the trench he had excavated. 



