In June and July, it is abundant at Salcombe and other places on the South Devon coast.

Fig. 208.-Beania mirabilis. x 50.

The Beania mirabilis is, I suppose, one of the rarer British marine Polyzoa; or perhaps it is a species

the microscopic organism has been unduly enlarged. As a matter of fact, the silvery white cells were barely visible, and I had no idea of the find until the microscope revealed the entanglement of finely-spiked cells, connected by creeping threads, and twisting in and out between the red fronds.

I have not been able to distinguish the slightest signs of life in my specimen, nor could I find any more in subsequent search through the same pools. I am under the impression that the polyp never has been seen. The frosted white of the stems is very attractive, and the curious form of the spinous cells renders the species unmistakable. Amongst the recorded stations around our coasts for the Beania, Scilly and Falmouth are named. Mr. W. P. Cocks is the authority for the Falmouth district, and Mr. Bean, I believe, discovered the zoophyte on a Cellularia, at Scarborough.

In our snatches of holiday, it is impossible to master the life-history of a tithe of what we may find; it would require steady work day by day for half a lifetime, to investigate the marine fauna of such a favourable spot as Salcombe estuary. But I am induced to offer these notes to readers of SCIENCEGOSSIP, not because they possess original merit in

which is occasionally over-looked in the wealth of parasitic growth. Fig. 209 gives the frond of Plocamium, on which the Beania attached itself in the low-tide zone. In the endeavour to present a picture of the natural growth, I think the real size of

this age of growing knowledge, but in the hope that young students may be roused to the pursuance of a delightful sea-side source of recreation and learning.

C. PARKINSON.

THE ISLAND OF INCHKEITH.

By CHAS. WARDINGLEY.

To anyone glancing casually at the south-eastern то

portion of the map of Scotland, the Island of Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth appears so small and insignificant as scarcely to merit any lengthy or serious consideration. Even to many of those who have visited and spent some time in the Forth district the island has presented no special feature of interest or attraction further than that which is possessed by, and is common to, the other small islets which are dotted here and there in the immediate vicinity. Nay, even by the majority of those who have seen it, sailed past it or round it, and by many who have had the privilege of landing upon it, it would be curtly described and as promptly dismissed as 66 a small island with a lighthouse upon it." There are however exceptions, of which let us give two. Dr. Johnson (in the company of his biographer Boswell) visited it in 1773, and though he remarks that there was "rather a profusion of thistles," acknowledges very frankly that it had its redeeming features. "I'd have this island," he breaks forth; "I'd build a house, make a good landing-place, have a garden, etc.," and further avows that "a rich man of a hospitable turn would have many visitors." Carlyle visiting it at a later date, describes it as "prettily savage," "barley trying to grow under difficulties," "no inhabitants except seven cows and the lighthouse-keeper and his family," and although he neglects to tell us of the conditions of the kine, he is so far characteristic as to volunteer the information that "the lighthousekeeper was by far the most life-wearyd-looking mortal I ever saw."

Neither is the prevailing general indifference shared by the commercial and military naval authorities. To the former it is a source of considerable danger and loss, its position midway in the channel of the Firth, and the presence of sunken rocks which surround it on all sides, only too frequently causing the disablement or wreck of some unlucky vessel, which, driven by stress of weather or a gale from the east, has been compelled to run for shelter into the quieter waters of the estuary. Almost every year,

"When stormy March has come at last,
With winds and clouds and changing skies,"

some craft or other is driven upon and broken to pieces by the rocks bordering this apparently insignificant island. Again, to those having charge of the naval defences of the kingdom, Inchkeith, commanding as it does the entrance to an extensive stretch of easily accessible coast-line, has been considered of such paramount strategic importance as to justify it in being acquired for defensive purposes, and with this object in view it has recently passed into the custody of the War Department. At the present

time it is being strongly fortified, and will, ere long, be fully equipped with all the most recent scientific paraphernalia necessary to meet any emergency which may arise in time of war.

But our object just now is not so much to dwell upon its dangerous position or its strategic importance, as to place before the land-dwelling, peaceloving reader, a few facts connected with the island, which may be calculated to arouse and partially to satisfy his or her interest and curiosity.

In Anglo-Saxon times the island appears to have been known as Caer Guidi, or Fort of the River, and under this very appropriate name is mentioned by Bede. In 1010 Malcolm II. conferred it upon Robert Keith, one of the first Marshals of Scotland and founder of the Keith family, as a reward for personal courage and political services, and in this way the island acquired its present name. Since then it has been held successively by the Crown, the Lords of Glammis, and the Buccleuch family, while from the latter it has been obtained for the use of the nation. In the turbulent days of Queen Mary it was frequently made a subject of contention, and was in consequence the scene of many a fierce combat. In 1548, the year after the Battle of Pinkie, it was seized and fortified under the direction of the Lord Protector Somerset, who placed an English garrison upon it. Two years later this garrison was assaulted and expelled by the Queen Regent's French allies, over three hundred of its defenders being killed or wounded. It was re-garrisoned by the captors, who held it until the Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560. During this last occupancy a larger and much stronger fort or castle was built, doubtless with a view to future contingencies, but it remained intact only a very brief period, being destroyed by order of the Lord's of Council soon after Mary's surrender in 1567. Its ruins remained until 1803 when they were removed to make way for the erection of the present lighthouse.

In 1497 the island was made an asylum to which all persons afflicted with an infectious distemper called "grand-gore" or "gran-gore" were to repair, "and there to remain till God provide for their health."

Robert Lindesay writing about 1550, chronicles a curious experiment said to have been made some fifty years earlier by James IV. His Majesty, moved with a laudable spirit for original investigation, conceived the idea that it might be interesting and possibly profitable to mankind, if he could discover the primitive language of the human race. Accordingly he caused to be taken to Inchkeith ane dumb woman and two bairns with hir," desiring by thus setting them apart from the rest of their species, "hereby to know what language they had when they cam to the aige of perfyte speech." Details of the experiment are unfortunately not given, but the veracious author with a little commendable hesitation records that

report said "they spak guid Ebrew," a result not more remarkable than if the verdict had been "guid Lowland Scotch."

The geology of the island is extremely interesting and is highly illustrative of that of the shores of Fife as seen at Pettycur, about two and a half miles to the north, of which probably the Inchkeith series is an outlier. It affords a very fine opportunity for the study of intrusive trap-rock and the accompanying deposits of calciferous sandstone and carboniferous shale. The first impression conveyed to the mind when the general mass is viewed from a distance is that it must have been the apex or plug of an extinct volcano, but a closer and fuller examination of the stratified rock soon dispels that idea. The trap (whinstone) is a greenstone or dolerite, composed of the minerals grey felspar and augite in very fine grains, and this rock comprises fully five-sixths of the entire island rising in the northern portion to a height of one hundred and eighty feet above sea-level. This trap would appear first to have fractured and displaced the sandstones and shales, and later to have protected them from the destructive influence of the sea by acting as a natural breakwater. The sedimentary beds have undergone a considerable amount of change, due to their contact with the igneous rock. Thus we find the shale converted into a hard, brittle rock which breaks almost like slate, while the sandstones are variously affected, here presenting a quartzlike appearance, there a burnt limestone effect is produced, and nowhere is it found where it has not been in a greater or lesser degree altered from its original texture, colour, and hardness. It is quite noticeable too, that in the proximity of its junction with the sedimentary rocks, the trap (or whinstone) loses its crystalline appearance and becomes of a red and earthy nature. In the southern part of the island many of the amygdaloidal cavities are filled with crystals of carbonate of lime, chalcedony, and silica, and these when water-worn have a very pretty effect, resembling some of the porphyries found in Perthshire. The dip of the intrusive trap and the stratified rock is to the north-east, the average being about 45°.

Having regard to the vast amount of heat evolved by the igneous rock when first poured forth, and the resulting changes in the strata, it of course follows that very few remains of past life reward the efforts of the geologist. As may naturally be expected, this extreme heat has all but obliterated them, and little or nothing is to be met with except the almost microscopical tests of the Ostracod crustacean Leperditia subrecta which occur fairly abundantly in the shale. Maclaren in his "Geology of Fife and the Lothians," suggests that the carboniferous limestone crops out in the bed of the Forth a little to the east of Inchkeith, but the persistent absence of limestone pebbles on the east shore tends somewhat to throw doubt on this supposition. Still, when we

take into consideration the steep declivity of the rocks at this part, the great depth of the water and the direction of the currents, we have quite sufficient grounds for not accepting the absence of carboniferous limestone pebbles as conclusive evidence that the carboniferous limestone formation is wanting.

In the north-east of the island there is to be seen one of those curious memorials of prehistoric times known to archeologists as Kjökken-Moddings (Anglicè, Kitchen Middens) or shell-mounds. These are simply the refuse heaps upon which were thrown the shells and bones of the various creatures which were used as food by the primitive people who formed them. The example at Inchkeith, first brought into notice in 1872, may almost be considered as a typical one, and is well seen in a section made by the cutting of a military road leading to the North Battery. The entire exposure has a depth of a little over eight feet, consisting at the base of a fairly compact and dark-coloured rubble. Upon this is the mound made up of tens of thousands of castaway shells of Patella vulgata, Buccinum undatum, Purpura lapillus, and Littorina littorea, together with a large number of bones, chiefly from the porpoise (Delphinus phæcæna), and seal (Phoca sp.). Some of these bones have been split to enable the operator the more readily to extract the marrow, while many of them show traces of having been in contact with fire. The mound is in its turn covered by a loose rubble, varying in depth from twelve to sixteen inches, and consisting of sand and decayed vegetation. If this upper rubble were removed the shell-heap would be found to be in the shape of an irregular ring, with a diameter of from thirty to thirty-five feet and with a maximum depth of eighteen inches, thinning" out as it gradually approaches the margin. Within or very close to this ring was reared the dwelling of the mound-makers, a dwelling situated on high ground, to which the sea although near was inaccessible. Unfortunately it is impossible to give even an approximate date to the period when these rude inhabitants lived, and the language they spoke, the customs they observed, and the conditions under which they existed are all lost to the pages of unwritten history. They were most probably a migratory people, wandering from place to place, living in exposed situations in summer and seeking shelter on the approach of winter. No weapons or utensils have yet been discovered at Inchkeith, but from those obtained in Denmark, where they have been very extensively found and studied by Professors Steenstrup and Worsaae, it has been inferred that they were made during the early Stone Period, and that they were quite probably of the same age as the earliest lake dwellings. It must however be mentioned that Sir John Lubbock records ("Pre-historic Times," 4th edition, page 234) the finding of a large bronze pin in the large shell-mound of Loch Spynie,

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which consequently would not be more than 1,200 years old. This seems a solitary and perhaps not altogether satisfactory "find," as by far the greater proportion of Moddings have as yet yielded only such weapons, etc., as would lead to the opinion that their formers were scarcely more than acquainted with the art of flint polishing, while their pottery was of the very rudest kind. Of the metals and their uses they were probably quite ignorant, employing instead the flints and bones which came so readily to their hands. From the absence of wood and stone in the mounds, except where the latter has been used as a hearth, we are led to believe that the middeners dwelt in tents made of skins, only slightly elevated from the ground. Though the transfer of the edible portions of the mollusca upon which they lived, from the shell to the stomach, would be accomplished without any very great regard for culinary preparation, yet the presence of a dark-coloured carbonaceous substance found diffused among the débris, and the marks of burning left upon many of the bones, point to the cooking of such larger fishes and birds as came in their way.

They do not appear to have had any knowledge of agriculture, not a single instance being known of any variety of grain having been found in the mounds. Even the shells and bones which they threw away bear witness that this early people had not the means of obtaining for themselves a very diversified meal. All the species of shells, with one or two rare exceptions, found at Inchkeith are such as may be gathered between high and low water mark, while the remains of the porpoise and seal are readily accounted for by assuming these creatures to have been caught in the various shallows and pools left by the receding tide. No human bones have yet been discovered in any of the shell-mounds, so that we are quite unable to form any definite opinion either as to the physique of this ancient race or their methods of disposing of the dead.

The Flora of Inchkeith is not very extensive, a circumstance fully accounted for by the exposed situation and the limited extent of the island, a strip of land about half a mile long by a quarter broad not affording very great scope for the growth of many varieties. No account of Inchkeith could be considered anything like complete which did not contain some reference to the zoology of the Forth in its immediate neighbourhood. A few hours' energetic dredging just off its rock-bound shores will yield quite a bountiful array of Estuarine Fauna. Large specimens of the beautiful sea-urchin, (Echina sphæra), numerous starfishes and crustaceans, many varieties of bivalves, and quite a host of the lowly but equally beautiful and interesting anemones, sponges, corallines, and seaweeds; these and many others abound in the adjacent waters.

It may fairly be questioned whether there is any spot in the kingdom of such limited extent, which is

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more replete with interest and instruction, more capable of yielding food for reflection and pleasure to the mind, more favourably situated for the study of the past and present of the great world of which this green little isle" forms such an insignificant portion. If, as Bacon has enunciated, study is to be valued more as a discipline of humanity than as an exercise of the intellect, here then is a fitting place in which to put the aphorism into practice, and while we look into the beautiful and harmonious world of nature and life before and round us, let us dispel those lofty ideas of ourselves, and remember that we, like the ground below us, are but small fractions of this great and glorious universe. This done, and we shall then be able to substitute greater and more just views of the grandeur of creation and the perfections of its infinite Author.

acquaintance with these adult crustaceans in a state of nature.

Barnacles-order Crustacea, specific name Cirripedia [Lat. cirrus, a curl; pes, a foot]-begin life as active larvæ, resembling nauplius, and may be found every autumn swimming along our coasts in great numbers. This larva at its first moult develops a lateral mantle-fold. At its fourth change the front of its head becomes fixed by the flattening of one of the joints of the antennæ, and by the secretion poured out by a gland which, though placed in the body has its duct opening into the altered joint. At the fifth stage the eyes and antennæ vanish, the head becomes fixed by a broad base of attachment, the mantle-like fold of integument surrounds the body,

Gardens, London, a "Wonderful natural curiosity, called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or Tree bearing geese, taken up at sea on January 12th, 1807, and more than twenty men could raise out of the water." This "wonderful natural curiosity," was nothing more nor less than a tree-trunk covered with barnacles. The name of the individual under discussion, Lepas anatifera, literally "goose-bearing," takes us back in spirit to the times when the popular superstition proclaimed that the branches of certain trees on falling into the sea, collected (sea-foam on themselves, and therefrom hatched a sort of shell-fish called barnacles, which in their turn evolved the bird going by the name of the barnacle goose.

This superstition of the Middle Ages owes its

and becomes calcified into a shell of many valves, within which the hinder parts of the body are enclosed, together with their six pairs of limbs. These limbs remain free and capable of protrusion, while the mouth with its mandibles lies at the bottom of the mantle cavity. Both the sexes are combined in one individual, and their fecundity is something marvellous. But to proceed, on passing along the beach a few hours later I noticed to my great amusement that the log had been taken possession of by some fishermen, who had rigged a tarpaulin over it, and were charging one penny admission to view the "Wonderful Sea Lioness." "What elastic imaginations some people possess!" was my comment. My companion replied that he had seen a paragraph in "Notes and Queries " to the effect that there was exhibited in Spring

Fig. 212.-Barnacle Goose.

origin no doubt to the play of words, the barnacle being confounded with the barnacle goose. The former is derived, according to some authorities, from the Irish barneach; according to others it is the diminutive of the Latin perna, a shell-fish, pernacula being transformed into bernacula by a mere interchange of labial explodents, in strict accordance with the primary rules governing the permutation of sounds.

The name of the barnacle goose, on the other hand, is derived from the Low Latin bernaca, through the French bernaque. We have, according to Ducange, Bernaca, aves aucis palustribus similes [Bernacæ, birds resembling the fowl in the marshes].

The story once placed on a sound footing, sceptics were told to read their Bibles, and give special attention to Genesis i. 20: "And God said, Let the