SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 63 
through the air. We may mistake and we may mis- 
interpret, but blunt is the mind and dull are the eyes that 
even in this despised creature can doubt the guiding touch 
of the finger of God. 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
ON ASCOG BAY. 
" ^j^^AREEN as the sands of the sea shore," is a phrase 
not always correct, for very many stretches of 
sandy beach are literally teeming with life, and barren 
indeed are the sands that are destitute of life of some 
description. To the former category the little bay which 
we were exploring in our last chapter belongs. Descending 
to the water's edge of the semicircle, we find the yellow 
sand to have a firm and pleasant tread under our feet, and 
so numerous are the indications of life, we are almost at a 
loss to know where to begin. 
The inhabitants of the rocky, stony shore are entirely 
difi*erent creatures from the families of the sandy beach. 
The former spend their lives almost exclusively amongst 
the rocks and stones, finding sustenance and protection in the 
numerous little crevices there overhung by waving herbage, 
and into which they invariably can retreat for safety from 
the approaching foe. When the receding tide has left 
those places bare, it is only after a careful and diligent 
search that an occasional capture of a prize specimen can 
be made. The sand families, on the other hand, are all 
burrowers ; and both when the water is over them and 
