272 LOCH CRERAtt. 



No sign of injury appeared on the shell, and the muscular 

 attachments were still sticking to the valves, showing that 

 the animal had been alive and well, and that the shell 

 had not been found empty. Nor could we find that the 

 shell had been mouthed by the gull, so as to sicken the 

 cockle, and force it to leave hold. It seemed most reason- 

 able to suppose that, feeding on the borders of the tide, 

 both gull and oyster-catcher seized their prey when the 

 siphons were exserted, and then cleaned the shell, as no 

 broken shells, such as would lead to the supposition of 

 rough usage, are visible on the beach, which is otherwise 

 thronged with freshly-devoured cockle shells. We could 

 scarcely have believed that cockles could thus be caught 

 in multitudes unprepared. 



When traversing an upland farm with a considerable 

 extent of cultivated land we noted one field fast relapsing 

 into sphagnum and lichen. This, we learned, had been 

 the direct result of an extra dose of moisture in our ordi- 

 narily "damp" climate. The field had been carefully 

 grass-sown before a very wet summer, and the seeds had 

 been washed into patches, where they had not been alto- 

 gether swept away, enabling the original hill vegetation 

 to assert itself, while the cultivated grasses contended for 

 bare existence in little grass "forts" scattered here and 

 there. But what is this on the contiguous field ? A 

 good-sized stone on which an unmistakable serpula tube, 

 or series of tubes, has been affixed, and has stood the 

 contest of elements almost unimpaired. That mussel 

 and other shells should be borne to the hills by birds ; 

 or that Crustacea in a ruined condition should strew the 

 elevated neighbourhood of a cormorant's seat, is simple 

 enough ; but why should a large stone with the home of 

 a sea-worm upon it appear in such a position ? Look 



