the natural history of bundoran
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8/6/2019 The Natural History of Bundoran
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NATURAL HISTORY OF BUNDORAN by R.J. Welch
The Famous Rock-pools and Shell Sand-HillsWhile Tenby and the other famous marine Natural History resorts of England have had good popular
writers like Gosse and Kingsley to sound their praises, Bundoran, with a much richer fauna, has beenleft in the hands of the severely scientific specialist, whose papers, like Duerden¶s for instance, onThe Rock-Pools (Irish Naturalist, 1895), appeared in journals read only by a very limited number of the travelling public. Over fifty years ago, Thompson, the well-known Naturalist, called attention to therichness of the marine treasures to be found on the strands and in the rock-pools, and it was here thatWailer, whose fine collection is now in the National Museum, Dublin, found Trochus duminyi , probablyour rarest marine shell.
The rock-pools at time west end have long been known as the chief station in Ireland for the PurpleUrchin, Strongylocentratos, a native of the Mediterranean, which has been enabled by the warmth of the Gulf Stream waters to work its way up the west coast of Ireland to Donegal Bay, while unable tolive on the coasts of the sister Kingdom. Between tiles, these large shallow pools in the flaky andfossiliferous limestone are literally paved with the urchins, most of which will be seen to have half buried themselves in the solid rock, no one yet knows how, many being still further encysted by a
thick botryoidal growth of the Nullipore or Coralline seaweed²Lithothamnion²which seem to flourishbest around the urchin burrows. With these in the pools may be found rare Starfish, swept in fromdeep waters by ocean currents, masses of the tiny Brittle Stars, Foraminifera, Zoophytes, and other fine material for the microscope; large shrimps in great quantity, Sea Hare, and other more gorgeouscoloured Nudibranchs; Gobies, and last, though not least, (the longest animal in the world) the LongWorm or ³Living Fishing Line,´ as Kingsley described it, Lineus marinus, threaded through theinterstices of the Nuilipores, from which, with care, it may be drawn out yard by yard; specimens 10 to15 feet long may be seen though they have been obtained very much longer under flat stones in other localities.
In the late summer and autumn time the Portuguese Man O¶ War may be found floating on the stilldeep pools in the caves, and on the Shell Strand at Finner Sandhills, near the Fairy Bridges, largenumbers of the Atlantic pelagic species, lanthina, a very beautiful purple shell, come ashore with thepearly Ram¶s Horn, Spirula peronii , a small relative of the Nautilus, which has been wafted north from
tropical seas.
Many rare Landshells live on these Finner sand-dunes, and it is here that over 18oo reversed or sinistral, and many scalariform specimens of Helix nemoralis have been found. The reversed Helicesof this species in most of the Museums and private collections in the British Islands have come fromBundoran. Rare Vertigos are not uncommon in the ³shell-pockets´ near the mouth of the Erne River and in flood debris there. The many caves of Bundoran have long been an attraction, and the curiousfretting and undercutting of the Carboniferous Limestone cliffs, such as the Fairy Bridges, are alwaysof special interest to the geologist who strays so far west. The shales and limestones are veryfossiliferous, especially so, near the Great Northern Hotel, where also good marine pot-holes may beseen. Right in front of the Hotel is about the finest example we have in Ireland of the first stages in theformation of ³Earth Pillars,´ like those of the Austrian Tyrol, or National Park of America, deeplyeroded in boulder clay. Lough Melvin, with its Gillaroo Trout and many freshwater shells, is some twomiles distant, and beyond the lake many damp mountain glens and ravines with a very abundant and
varied Flora, including many rare ferns. Most delightful drives bring the visitor to the great mountainvalley of Glenade and its old woods; Gleniff with its great cave, or Glencar and its fine waterfall, cliffs,and rare land shells.