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Part III,— Eleventh Annual Report 



had as many as five in the one tube and four in the other, from 5 to 7 

 inches in length. One of these voracious fish bad its stomach filled with 

 a huge jelly-fish, with red stinging tentacles, evidencing want of food 

 supply to any great extent — and yet fish were good and plentiful at 

 26 to 40 fs. in this loch. 



We here obtained the large stone-crab Lithodes maia for the first 

 time in the Hebridean area, with fine Pennatulse and a few Rossia 

 macrosoma. One of the Norwegian lobsters was in spawn, and the 

 tow-net showed pteropods numerous, with Sagittse present. 



All these Lewis lochs have a reputation for oysters, but there is no 

 evidence that they are specially fitted for oyster-cultivation. The oysters 

 are mainly the scattered rock-oysters prevalent around our western sea- 

 board, and obtainable at low spring-tides. Suitable ground for the laying 

 down of beds proved to be exceedingly scarce in any of the lochs we 

 visited. While testing these lochs, with the trawl more especially, the 

 dredge was used wherever it was thought advisable or possible, and often 

 in places where the trawl could not be put down. The result was not 

 such as we had deemed probable, even Mollusca being comparatively 

 scarce, while Crustacea were throughout extremely rare. Species indeed 

 proved interesting, but individuals were few. In Tarbert, Harris, we 

 found the fishermen taking a few herring, but they proved to be gut- 

 pokes, and the fishermen had removed the stomachs ere we managed to 

 obtain them. We therefore were unable to examine the character of 

 their food. There was no ground for putting down the trawl. The 

 same may be said of Loch Maddy, so that the next loch we were able to 

 investigate was Loch Eport, in North XJist. This loch is far too shallow 

 for the most part for anything but a dredge, and although of considerable 

 length, and apparently rich in salmonidae, as well as remarkable for the 

 extraordinary water connection, we had no evidence of a special wealth 

 either of mollusca or Crustacea. The minuter Crustacea amongst the 

 tangle were common enough, but there j was no sign of herring shoals or 

 prevalence of other sea-fish. The dredge brought up great quantities of 

 coralline material with multitudes of dead shells, but life was notable by 

 its absence. Severe weather detained us some time in Loch Boisdale, 

 which we fished carefully, but without important results. Indeed, we 

 were here extremely disappointed with the character of the fish captured, 

 seeing the floating food was plentiful, and the salmonidse of the connect- 

 ing fresh- waters are amongst the most famous in the islands. Echini 

 were here specially large and fine, and the little Echinocyamus, which is 

 a deep water species, was obtained alive amongst the shore species. 

 Solaster papposa and Goniaster Templetoni were also fine. The latter we 

 found throughout the region traversed, and commonly large and richly 

 coloured. A topknot, one of the few captured on this expedition, was 

 taken in Lochboisdale. Off Castlebay, Barra, the ground proved to be 

 much richer, and the interesting crustacean, Colocaris Macandrex, was 

 taken in the mud in deep water. We should have liked much to have 

 examined the great fishing-banks to the south of Barra Head, but our 

 vessel was not equal to such work, more especially in the weather then 

 prevailing, so that we were forced to proceed to Canna, for fear of being 

 weather-bound in such an out-of-the-way corner. Off Canna we took the 

 only black sole obtained during the expedition. It was of large size and 

 in fiue condition, but lacked the delicate flavour of the English fish. 

 Another was captured about the same time to the north of Skye, and was 

 looked upon there also as a rare fish. We did not obtain a single turbot 

 throughout the expedition, but in the neighbourhood of Canna, as we 

 had previously noted, the ground was much richer in life of all kinds than 

 we had found further north. The floating life also proved to be of the 



