SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
81 
board there ; but from the Tail of the Bank" downwards, 
the law ceases to exist. The consequence is, that the 
shores and bays and bed of the channel, from Gourock to 
Pladda, have been over and over again strewn with layers 
of hard-pointed, bristling, calcined refuse, which, with the 
thousands of tons of barge-deposited mud that has annually 
been dropped into the sea at Loch Long mouth — authorita- 
tive reports, nevertheless, to the contrary — have completely 
changed the nature of the bottom, and made it an unhealthy 
abode for the fiat fish and mollusc families. Put out a 
dredge net in any of these quarters, and ample evidence of 
the facts will be brought up in the shape of a bag full of 
slimy rubbish, composed largely of the refuse mentioned. 
The evil effects, however, do not spring from the larger 
pieces of that refuse, but from its crumbling, overspreading 
nature. The following description of a clam, brought up 
from the Skermorlie Bank with a fisherman's long line, and 
which was brought to me r(5ceQtly, may serve to show 
somewhat the condition the bottom is in. This creature 
was a very large one, the sandy ground of the upper valve 
was stained all over with a coal-tar like substance, which no 
amount of brushing with soap and wat-r would remove. 
Across the corrugated surface an accumulation of foreign 
substance was adhering, which, at first sight, seemed to be a 
malformation of itself, and the first touch of the finger 
confiimed the idea, but with a firmer pressure the interior 
proved to be of a softer nature. In a transverse position 
from the ridges, in the midst of this mass, a number of tube- 
like constructions reached across the entire length, which, 
on closer inspection, was found to contain animal life. 
Breaking away the fringe of the gummy-hardened crust, I 
drew out from the mass a curious worm-shaped animal. 
Stretching it out to its full length, it measured about two 
