140 LOCH CRERAN. 



of their holes. A similar result has followed the great 

 increase of the razor fish (Solen), which were thrown 

 ashore one year in Ardmucknish Bay in great quantities. 

 So that in the case both of the seaweed and the shellfish 

 the onslaught of humanity, when not excessive, is a pro- 

 tection to the species. 



Ha ! you rascal ! That is the way you manage is it. 

 Here is a large star-fish with its arms around a shell-fish 

 (tapes), or rather the shell-fish fixed at the angle of two 

 of its rays, and despite the dash of the waves it is busily 

 occupied, having already sucked a great part of the fish 

 out of the shell. 



If it is Sunday, said everybody, what does it matter ? 

 to-morrow is the second day after the moon, and the 

 tide ought to be better still. But Monday came, and 

 the wind was again stiff from the south-west, and the 

 waters elected not to face it, but to remain quietly in the 

 loch ! The tide is passed, and we have missed it, now 

 said our little world, dolorously ; but we will make the 

 most of what little there is, and enjoy a day at the 

 " shore " on Loch Linnhe. The boat is supplied, and 

 we turn seawards, while all the morning anxious eyes 

 have watched "the carry," if perchance there might 

 come north in the wind. North it is distinctly, and when 

 we reach the islets off Aird's Bay it is clear that the 

 waters have made a bolt of it out to the Atlantic, for 

 such a tide we have rarely seen. All the littoral ocean 

 world is caught napping, as foot after foot is exposed, 

 and we revel in the wonderful profusion of life displayed 

 amid these current-haunted rocks. Life creates life ; 

 evidently here it is a "London town" with the higher 

 life grazing on the lower, and a score of currents bring- 

 ing nourishment from many a varied foreshore and sea- 



