240 LOCH CRERAN, 



its nostrils to the edge of the surface, the gentle displace- 

 ment of the sand alone betraying it. As we scan the 

 environs of the eel's hiding-place carefully, we catch sight 

 of a little fellow in a tremendous hurry. A novel 

 crustacean? we would once have observed, but, as 

 burned children dread the fire, our experience with the 

 dredged spider has rendered us cautious. Clearly 

 another spider, we will pass it by! Just then we 

 recollected of the negro who passed a guinea contemp- 

 tuously because he had lost some shillings on a light one 

 he found before; and, stooping, we captured the 

 wanderer with difficulty. Here is actually the little 

 gossamer spider itself to which the web belonged that we 

 have just destroyed ! It was racing full speed on a bee 

 line for the shore, swimming the pools of water even 

 more rapidly than it traversed the intervening muddy 

 hillocks thrown up by the lug worms. We place it upon 

 our -hand, and blow it sharply through the air for some 

 yards into the centre of a pool of water, when it at once 

 starts without being the least disconcerted, and hurries 

 shorewards once more. Whether it ever arrived at the 

 goal, which was several hundred yards off, or how it 

 behaved if overtaken by the tide, we could not wait to 

 see. 



On a solitary hunt a few yards off the shore at low 

 water we had an excellent opportunity of examining 

 the inhabitants of what is ordinarily several fathoms 

 under medium tide, and while thus wandering along in 

 the bright sun and the clear water of a crisp frosty day, 

 we came unexpectedly upon a colony of scallops, pecten 

 opercularis. We had never seen them " on their native 

 heath" before, and looked down upon them with especial 

 interest. The ground they affect is a mixture of stones 



