Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/114

86 Dillwyn of Swansea, sent me word in October that a young oblong sun-fish had been recently washed up on the sands there, and was preserved at the Institution. This is the more rare species of the two.—Wm. Yarrell; Ryder St., St. James's, February, 1843.

naturalist knows the pleasure arising from visiting a new locality, even for a few days. Though the whole of this pleasure cannot be imparted to others, some portion of it might, could naturalists be induced to take up the pen, though they may have no discoveries to boast of, and nothing very remarkable to communicate.

Were I disposed to try my hand at description, I should have a fine field in all that I saw from the time that I left the harbour of Ardrossan till I reached Whiting-bay, after touching at Brodick and Lamlash. And were I inclined to geologise, I should here have ample scope, since Arran is an epitome of the Geology of the world. Instead however of even looking at the twenty-five square miles of granite in the centre of the island, pushed up by some tremendous power, and rising into pinnacles nearly 3000 feet in height, let us place ourselves at once on the lowly shore at Whiting-bay; and the chief geological feature which there attracts attention, is the numerous trap dykes which intersect the sandstone, and indurate it in such a manner that it seems to have undergone the operation of broiling. Towards the north of the bay the mass of trap rocks, instead of appearing as veins, assumes in some degree the form of basaltic pillars.

Prowling along the shore among these dykes and rocks, I had the pleasure of discovering Echinus lividus, being the first time that it had been observed in Scotland or England, though it had been found in several places in Ireland. It was not the fine dark purple variety which burrows in limestone rocks, but the greenish variety, the tips of the spines only being purple, their base and the whole crust being greenish. It appears to be gregarious, as wherever it was found there were generally about a dozen in the same little pool, among the rocks. Echinus sphæra was very common; but instead of being found in the little pools, it occurred in rather deep water along the shore, and not congregated like Echinus lividus. From the lightness of its colour it was more easily detected than E. lividus; and when full grown was