1894-95.] 2I 3 



to Belfast with heavy bags on their back, to sell for scouring 

 tables and floors. There is scarcely any green left ; they never 

 took the red. The lightermen used to come down at high tide 

 and anchor, load up with sand when the tide went out, aad 

 pole the lighters up to Belfast at the next high tide. The 

 leases gave the holders power to forbid such excavations inside 

 hall-tide mark. 



To realize the extent of these changes, let me picture to you 

 our shore as it was and as it now is. Glancing at the diagram, 

 we see Macedon point, which is in reality a solid boss of basalt, 

 about 8 or 10 feet high, forming the base of the triangle A, 

 which is enclosed by the two inner arms of the cross-reefs. In 

 old days this triangle of shore not only stood at a considerably 

 higher level than the shore outside, thanks to the protection 

 afforded to it by the reefs, but also contained a deep deposit of 

 tolerably firm mud, in which were many pools of water, thickly 

 fringed with grass-wrack {Zostera marina), frequented by pipe- 

 fish {Syngnathi) ; and, I remember vividly, that these pools 

 were so deep that the fish could not be captured without 

 wetting the sleeves. This gives a kind of rough estimate of 

 the depth of the pools. It was the only spot on my special 

 "bit of foreshore" where the grass-wrack flourished. Now the 

 protecting walls of basalt are broken down — mud, grass-wrack, 

 and pipefish have vanished, and the triangle is an expanse of 

 bare, red marl, devoid of much permanent animal or vegetable 

 life. This bare, scoured surface prevails over long stretches of 

 the shore that were formerly covered with a deep coating of 

 sand, full of lobworms, cockles, and Terebellce, and used to be 

 dotted with long, shallow pools, plentifully furnished with sea- 

 grass ( Enteromorpha compressa ) and green laver ( Ulva 

 latissima). The bladder wrack {Fucus vesdiculosus) confines 

 itself chiefly to the reefs of basalt, giving valuable warning of 

 their presence even at high tide. General Bland tells me that 

 opposite Woodbank (nearer to WhiteabbeyJ he has been struck 

 by the same exposure of marl where formerly sand about two 

 feet deep prevailed, and mentions that great banks of mud have 



