68 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUAKIUM. 



ingenious speculation has been employed upon the 

 manner in which an animal so constituted manages 

 to perforate the rock which it inhabits. 



"Probably upon few subjects in natural history 

 does so much discrepancy of opinion still exist; and 

 when the abundance of subjects every coast presents 

 for our investigation is considered, it looks something 

 like an opprobrium to the science of Zoology, that the 

 question remains now just where it was forty or fifty 

 years ago."* 



The Pholas is not, however, according to my ex- 

 perience, abundant at the present day on the shores 

 of the Frith of Forth. I have seen many thousands 

 of holes in different parts of the coast filled with 

 empty shells, but the only places in which I have had 

 the good fortune to find living specimens was at 

 Wardie, situated between Trinity and Granton, and 

 also in a seam of sandstone that runs towards the 

 sea, at a little distance from the Salt-pans of Joppa. 

 The attention of a visitor in search of specimens 

 will be directed to a number of circular orifices in the 

 solid rock, many of which are to all appearance com- 

 pletely filled. Should the act of placing a finger 

 upon an orifice be followed by the emission of a little 

 water, and at the same time a sudden feeling of 

 hollowness be communicated to the touch, it is pro- 

 bable that the home of a live Pholas has been dis- 

 covered. In order to carry away the prize intact, a 

 careful exercise of both chisel and hammer are re- 

 * " Chambers's Journal," 1849. 



