ARENICOLA PISCATORUM. 335 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



ARENICOLA PISCATORUM "THE LUG/ 



" Amid the bowels of the earth, 

 Where dawning day does never peep, 

 His dwelling- is." 



o 



EVERY visitor to the sea-coast must have remarked 

 certain places on the shore, near low-water mark, 

 almost entirely covered with little pyramids or mounds 

 formed by coils of sand or mud, the " castings" as 

 they are called, of worms. All these little heaps are 

 produced by an animal lurking at a considerable 

 depth beneath the surface, named in scientific lan- 

 guage Arenicola piscatorum, and known by fishermen, 

 who find in it a valuable bait, as the Lug-worm or the 

 Lug (PL VI. fig. 6) . There can never be any difficulty 

 in procuring specimens of these worms, if only care 

 be taken to dig deep enough, the spade being driven 

 to the depth of at least a foot and a half into the sand, 

 otherwise the animal will certainly be broken. 



When dug up entire, this beautiful Annelidan is 

 found to be about ten inches in length, and in some 

 parts nearly half an inch in thickness, its body being 

 cylindrical, and made up of very numerous segments 

 towards the posterior part. However, it becomes 



