Hunt — On the Action of Waves on Sea-heaches, 8fc. 279 



of my observations. Many of these observations, I may remark, bore 

 upon the currents only incidentally, having more especial reference 

 to the occurence andhabitats of uncommon shells. One of these shells 

 {thracia convexa), so far as I can ascertain, has only been taken in 

 Torbay alive in one limited locality, viz. oif Daddy Hole Plain, 

 on the northern shore. The living mollusc of this species burrows 

 deeply, and is rarely disturbed ; but the dead shell, being light, is 

 eminently calculated to be drifted by currents. If, however, this 

 species lives in but one spot in Torbay, as appears to be the case, the 

 occurrence of its shells in the neighbourhood will be a guide to the 

 nature of the currents that affect the bottom. Sundry notes that 

 bear on these currents are collected in an appendix. They may be 

 summarised as follows : — 



(1). Shells are occasionally swept from off Daddy Hole to 

 Paignton, in a westerly direction. They are occasionally swept 

 from Daddy Hole to a point off the Orestone, in an easterly direc- 

 tion. 



(2). Eefuse from the gas-works, and fragments of peat, and 

 masses of seaweed from Torre Abbey, will occasionally find their 

 way to Daddy Hole from the north-westward. Shells and stones 

 will occasionally reach the same spot from the eastward. 



(3).' One easterly gale will disturb shells living in the ground 

 off Daddy Hole, but not carry them off ; another gale of seemingly 

 equal intensity will sweep the whole bottom bare. One gale, or a 

 succession of gales, will roll and kill thousands of cockles off Paign- 

 ton, without driving them on shore ; another gale will send them 

 on shore, and sweep the bottom so clean, that not a valve of cockle 

 will be forthcoming in the usual localities. 



(4) . A heavy on-shor.e wind will drive shells on to the beach at 

 Paignton ; an equally strong on-shore wind at Meadfoot rarely 

 throws up any : though within a few hundred yards of the latter 

 beach (west of the sea-wall) dead shells collect on the bottom off 

 Daddy Hole in quantity. Among the latter are occasionally found 

 limpet shells, which have probably come from the shore (the alterna- 

 tive points of derivation being outlying islets), and beach-shingle 

 that must have come from the shore. 



(5) . A strong easterly wind usually reverses the normal inflow of 

 the ebb-tide along the northern shore of Torbay, but occasionally 

 seems to intensify such inflow, 



