1 30 LOCH C RERAN. 



seaward. This is to be done " to-morro v .v ; " and to- 

 morrow, if it comes seldom in the Lowlands, never 

 arrives in the Highlands. Cockles were lying all about, 

 for the disturbed sea has dislodged them from the 

 sand, and they too, will be preparing for maternal 

 arrangements at unseasonable and unreasonable times, 

 no doubt deluded by this troublesome weather. For we 

 cannot suppose that it is really normal to find even 

 mollusca spawning at all seasons of the year ; but we 

 must place them on the same footing as unusual flowers. 

 A huge horse mussel (Modiola) that we brought from 

 Loch Linnhe last week proved to have i ^oz. of meat in 

 it, and of this weight about half was spawn in a condition 

 almost ready for throwing ; while oysters are already 

 as forward as they should be in May. We are 

 proud of our potatoes in Benderloch, and usually they 

 do well for us, but this year no smacks seek our coast 

 with open holds, and the mild weather is sending the 

 pitted roots into a dangerous state of restless activity, 

 that will force our farmers to sell them in the shape of 

 beef and dairy produce. " It never rains but it pours," 

 and what with acres of our finest seaward land covered 

 with gravel by the storm, and heaped with sand still 

 further inland, even the farmers as they progress with 

 their spring work, and look with satisfaction at the pick- 

 ing even now on the hills, consider we have no more 

 reason to murmur on sea than they have on shore. How 

 can a wind damage a stretch of agricultural land ? we 

 asked ourselves, and here is the answer in covered acres ; 

 while our friend tells us dolefully of a year in which the 

 wind blew seaward with such fury that, on the light sandy 

 soil of Ledaig, all the seed was blown from the fields into 

 the sea, and might be seen floating for days on the top 



