NOVEMBER, 1881. 91 



likeliest sound we could think of, and it took us a minute 

 or two to trace it across the room to an omnium gatherum 

 of our specimens, and thereafter to the individual members 

 of them. Judge of our surprise to find the sound 

 proceeded from the barnacle, r whose cilise were being 

 extruded and withdrawn sharply as in its ocean home, 

 but with a result that could scarcely accompany the 

 movement in its natural element ! Prompt transfer to 

 sea water was an immediate cure. 



" Disaster 

 Followed fast, and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore.' 



We have hitherto calculated from the Tay Bridge gale, 

 on which occasion the tide in Loch Linnhe was said to 

 have risen higher than at any time since 1799, and con- 

 sequently we have considered ourselves absolutely secure 

 if our belongings were beyond the mark of this gale. But 

 Monday night (the 2ist) has changed all that. "The 

 Tay Bridge gale destroyed my boats this time," exclaimed 

 our stalwart friend amid the ruins of his many craft. For 

 he had foreseen a storm, and drawn all beyond the furthest 



mark of that gale, and yet The fact is that the now 



celebrated gale that made such havoc with us in Decem- 

 ber, 1879, only lasted a few hours, however severe; while 

 that of Monday night lasted until Tuesday evening with 

 steady fury, varied with intermittent blasts of greater fero- 

 city, when the breaking of the thunder clouds deluged us 

 'with rain and hail. Blowing thus so long from the 

 southerly quarter, the water was driven up our western 

 coast lochs to an unprecedented extent rising five feet 

 higher perpendicularly in Loch Creran than on the 

 previous occasion, and carrying devastation into all 

 buildings near the sea. The result of such a rise, in the 



