22 2 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



a stretch of a couple of hundred yards at the harbour. On the east of Clew 

 Bar, the inner shores are in general muddy or marshy, interspersed with 

 sandy beaches, usually of small extent, but occasionally, as off Annagh Island 

 and Bartra towards the south, and east of Mulranny on the north, expanding 

 into wide strands at low water. On the south, from Boonah Quay to 

 Leckanvy, rock predominates, and towards the north-west, along the 

 Curraun peninsula, narrow boulder-strewn beaches stretch along the foot of 

 the lofty scarps of drift which here wall in the coast Amongst the inner 

 islands the bottom is in general muddy, gravelly, or weedy, and in some 

 parts, especiaUy off Lnishlyre, is covered with beds of " corai," Litliotlmmnion 

 co.io:: : Aresch.. locally known as " : Grooanock." In the open bay, the 

 bottom is for the most part sandy, but patches of rough gravel or of mud 

 occur, with occasional small areas of drifted sheU-sand yielding dredgings 

 rich in the smaller Gasteropoda. 



II. Exploration of the Area. 

 I Shore-collfeting. 



The exploration of the marine moUuscan fauna of the area just denned 

 and described was allotted to me as my share of the Clare Island Survey. 

 Though from a distributional point of view this branch of the survey is 

 perhaps the least interesting and instructive, it proved by no means the least 

 onerous ; and had it not been for the cheerful aid given me by many skilled 

 helpers, I should have despaired of carrying it out with any approach to 

 completeness in the short time available. 



Four visits, each of about a week's duration, were paid to the district 

 during the thirteen months from July, 1909, to August, 1910; and on the 

 whole quite as much attention was given to dredging as to shore-collecting. 

 Clare Island itself was visited three times, July 16th-23rd, 1909 : July 21st- 

 26th, and August 16th-2Ist, 1910 : and early in May of the latter year six 

 days, 6th-llth, were spent on the shores of "Westport Bay, with head- 

 quarters at Belclare, about two miles south-west of "Westport Quay. 



Almost daily during these visits shore-collecting was carried on at low 

 water, with the result that the eastern and southern shores of Clare Island, the 

 shores of Annagh Island, of Dorinish, of Inishirnmel, and of the Scotch 

 Bonnet, that curious grass-crowned fag-end of an island so conspicuous in the 

 Westport channel, were fairly well explored. Some desultory shore-collecting 

 was done, too, at Old Head on the 25th July, 1909 : at Mulranny, on the 

 28th July, 1910 ; and at the south-western extremity of Curraun Ac-hill on 

 the 15th August of the same year. During the four visits to the district I 

 had the good fortune to be associated with other workers either well versed in 



