214 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



ten species met with, so far as they could be made 

 out" 



Besides these there were young shells, of half a 

 dozen different species, that appeared to have lived 

 in the bottle and in the black mud, and moreover the 

 bones of a fish, the ribs of which had a span nearly 

 as wide as the mouth of the bottle. " It is most 

 likely that it got in alive head foremost, and not 

 having room enough to turn, and from the smallness 

 of the bottle's mouth, and the elevation of the fins, 

 it would be unable to get out backwards, and conse- 

 quently perished in the trap." 



We may pity the stupidity of the poor little fish, 

 but must remember that before now the skeleton of 

 a human hunter has been found encased in a hollow 

 oak tree, no less the victim of an unforeseen and un- 

 intentional snare. 



But in his bottleful of mud what most interested 

 Mr. Robertson was that it contained eleven or more 

 species of foraminifera and eighteen or twenty of 

 ostracoda. It was the study especially of these two 

 groups that led him in the following year, 1867, to 

 the Shetland Isles. 



On this excursion also Mrs. Robertson accompanied 

 him. Although slight in figure, she was very ready 

 in those days, and is not unready even in these, to 

 go out with him in the boat with " the small dredge " 

 when other assistance could not be obtained. They 

 often did good work by themselves, sometimes even 

 reaching depths of sixty or seventy fathoms. 



According to the accounts they had heard, the 

 Shetlands were almost out of the pale of civilization, 



