92 APRIL. 



hear it observed that the shell-fish are always most 

 abundant in years of scarcity." * 



These Barra beds are of great antiquity. A very old 

 writer, Dean Monro, thus notices them : " This ile is 

 full of grate cokills, and alledgit be the auncient countre- 

 men that the same cokills comes down out of the fore T 

 said hill throw the said strype in the first smalle forme 

 that wee have spokyn of, and aftir theyr corny ing down 

 to the sandes growis grate cokills allways. Ther is 

 no fayrer and more profytable sandes for cokills in all 

 the worlde." 



But all this time our fair " cokill " has been lying 

 at our feet, snapping, and gaping, and thrusting forth 

 and back his great coral foot, waiting our leisure to 

 take him up. No longer shall he be neglected. The 

 bivalve shell is a fine solid house of stone, mas- 

 sive, strong, and heavy, elegantly fluted with promi- 

 nent ribs that radiate regularly on both valves from the 

 curved beaks, which ribs are beset with polished spiny 

 points. The hues of the shell are attractive, though 

 not at all showy ; they consist of tints of yellowish and 

 reddish browns, rich and warm, arranged in concentric 

 bands, and gradually fading to a creamy white at the 

 beaks. Unlike the scallops, the cockles have the two 

 valves alike in shape, and from the bent beaks meeting 



1 Voyage round Scotland, vol. i. p. 460. 



