3 1 6 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



and forward over the bay for nearly two hours. The 

 water is not deep. The bottom is sand and sandy 

 mud, with patches of Zostera. When darkness came 

 fully on phosphorescence was seen, but not in any 

 great abundance. The take when examined was 

 found to be poor, mostly amphipods, and a few 

 small isopods. What we expected and wished most 

 for was cumas, but not one was seen. The small 

 medusae with eight rays were abundant, and inter- 

 fered much with other things in the gathering. 



" In rowing along the shore the glow-worms were 

 sparkling like little stars along the grassy sand cliffs. 

 They were seen distinctly at at least two hundred 

 yards' distance." 



It was two years later that Mr. Robertson went 

 with his wife on a sort of pilgrimage to Peebles. 

 The ostensible object of the excursion was as usual 

 to search for ostracoda. But there was another 

 design in view. A few miles out of Peebles, in 

 Manor kirkyard, lies the grave of David Ritchie, the 

 Black Dwarf, celebrated by Sir Walter Scott's novel. 

 It was popularly believed that Ritchie had expressed 

 a wish to have a rowan tree * planted beside his 

 grave. Whether from heedlessness, or because there 

 was thought to be something uncanny in the wish, 

 it was not complied with. Mr. Alston, Mrs. Robert- 

 son's father, displeased with the neglect, took the 

 task upon himself, and accomplished it one night in 

 secret. The neighbours, finding the Dwarf's wish 

 thus mysteriously carried out, were little inclined to 

 damage or remove the tree, though they were now 



* Pyrus aucufiaria, the mountain ash. 



