386 INFLUENCES OF CULTIVATION 



important, since upon these lesser organisms Salmon, in 

 their tender years, and other fishes feed. But there is evi- 

 dence that even larger creatures not members of the true 

 aquatic fauna, though dependent on it, have suffered. 



Even in the wider stretches of water the destructive 

 effects of civilization upon the fauna are equally noticeable. 

 One would scarcely imagine that a wide arm of the sea 

 exposed to daily tidal changes, such as the Firth of Forth, 

 would be affected by the works of man. Yet such is un- 

 doubtedly the case, for the deposition of sewage and rubbish, 

 of coke and cinders from the increasing shipping on its waters, 

 and from the gas works and coal pits along its shores, have 

 played havoc with the fauna of a firth which in the sixteenth 

 century, according to Boece, was " richt plenteus of coclis, 

 osteris, muschellis, selch, pollock, merswine, and quhalis ; 

 with gret plente of quhit fische." The larger members of 

 the fauna have departed, the Oyster beds are ruined, the 

 Cockles and Mussels are not what they once were ; but the 

 most rapid change has taken place amongst the shore animals, 

 for in many places the old fine stretches of sand and rocks 

 whereon the people of the towns once spent happy hours, 

 are buried beneath many inches of filthy cinders which have 

 altered the courses of the streams and blotted out all traces 

 of life. No naturalist would recognize in the impoverished 

 shore fauna of the upper Firth to-day, that rich assemblage 

 of marine things made famous, only a generation or two 

 back, by the researches of Professor Edward Forbes, Pro- 

 fessor Allman, Dr Strethill Wright and their fellow workers. 



