158 LOCH CRERAN. 



attachment could be made. What purpose does this 

 growth serve in the economy of the foreshores, or rather 

 how does it influence the balance of life on the shallower 

 seas ? 



Let us walk across by this bit of wooding while we 

 consider the subject, for to-day the north wind has come 

 unexpectedly, and although yesterday we could scarcely 

 have moved across the grass, much less over the moss, 

 without going over the boots, to-day has dried the 

 country marvellously. What a deluge has fallen, to be 

 sure, and see what a large pond has gathered in the hole 

 left by that overturned tree-root ! We step behind the 

 moss-clad mass that towers above us, while we shelter 

 from the driving sleet and hail that still comes at 

 intervals. Peering around at the pool of water, we 

 watch the active water beetles flash as they traverse the 

 home they have already discovered. That one has dis- 

 appeared in a moment under under why ! a lot of 

 bright "slobbery stuff!" Here is, indeed, a fresh- water 

 alga of a cognate character to the black-spored shore 

 weed, and it, too, has suddenly made its appearance, 

 and is making rapid progress under the warm southerly 

 winds, despite the almost entire absence of sunlight. 

 Have we not thus a means of judging of the utility to ocean 

 life, as well as fresh water life, of this easily penetrated^ 

 but with difficulty traversed, alga ? May it not, indeed 

 must it not, be a source of security and a readily-reached 

 asylum for the multitudinous embryos of all classes of 

 life thrown during the spring and summer ; into which 

 they can slip, and under which they may remain hidden, 

 until with the autumn it departs and leaves them of 

 sufficient vigour and growth to fight the battle for them- 

 selves. We are satisfied that whatever safety a tangle 



