SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
95 
100 feet; and time was when the ancient Briton paddled 
his log canoe along their base. How long that may be 
since can only be conjecture, but it is no idle dream to say 
that such was the case. Very recently, in a cutting for 
the construction of the Gourock Kailway, Inverkip Street, 
Greenock, a bed of shells was discovered at an elevation of 
about 40 feet above the present sea level; and when these 
creatures were in life, the whole valley of the Clyde was 
assuredly beneath the tide. In Bute, again, I remember 
my father, who was for some years waterman at the old 
cotton mills, with a squad of men, unearthing a bed of the 
very same shells from the bottom of the old dam. During 
dry seasons, when the water was exhausted, advantage used 
to be taken to clean and deepen the lade that runs through 
the dam from Loch Fad above, and it was during one of 
these operations the shells were discovered, at a distance 
of nearly two miles from the sea. Looking, then, at the 
Island of Bute, and the changes that must have taken place, 
the present island in all probability was composed at one 
period of four different islands, being intersected by bays 
and channels at Port-Bannatyne, Eothesay, and Kilchattan 
Bay. Several thousands of years have in all probability 
elapsed since those days; nevertheless, it will be interesting 
to know that the same specimens found, which came under 
my notice, are still to be had alive in plenty. Amongst 
them were the mytilis modiolus^ or common horse mussel 
or Clappie Doo," as previously mentioned, and the ciprina. 
This latter shellfish is something of the Lady Fish species, 
but grows to a very large size, and although seldom found 
alive on the shore, it is a sand burro wer on the banks that 
only ebb on extremely rare occasions, where they still 
exist in plenty. For several months I had a pair of this 
species in my tank, brought up from the ground alongside 
