SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 79 
first question is, Can you tell what that is ? " Oh, yes, 
sir ; that is the clam." Is it plentiful here about V ''I 
can mind twenty years ago when ye couldna' put oot a trawl 
net in that bay without takin' in barrow-loads o' them, but 
noo ye'll scarcely see such a thing." "Can you give any 
reason for the disappearance ? " " Well, no ; but I think 
it's thae nasty star-fish sookin' at them." I have heard 
fishermen affirm this in other quarters also, but the star- 
fish, though one of the most voracious cannibals of the 
shore, preys more upon the dead than the living; and not 
being provided with an instrument to pierce the hard shell 
of the ever wary clam, the sucking delusion must be 
dismissed, and the cause sought for in another direction. 
THE CAUSES OF THE SCARCITY OF THE SCALLOP. 
Between forty and fifty years ago, when the pollution 
of the Clyde, by the wealthy rulers of Glasgow making it 
the cheap and easy receptacle of their ever-flowing, ever- 
increasing sewage, had not yet fully wrought its baneful 
influence upon the animal life of the river, it was an easy 
matter for fishermen to take in of a morning, in any 
frequented quarter of the Firth, almost as many stones of 
fine trout in their season as they can now bring in of 
pounds. The reason of this is that the pollution stopped 
the healthy flow of the river's run, and cut off the supply of 
stock fish from the breeding grounds of the upper reaches, 
thus demonstrating to the poor fishermen below the result 
of man's thoughtless greed and selfish expediency, even on 
the resources of Nature. 
But it will be said. What has this got to do with the 
scallop ? Well, if we go to the animal and insect worlds, 
we find that Nature always provides for the keeping down 
of vampires by the creation of special enemies, and the 
