found on the coast of Northumberland and of Durham, 235 



tiful specimens ; but I much regret to state that the Luidias were 

 equally as great adepts in the art of dismembering themselves as 

 those whose suicidal powers are so graphically described by Pro- 

 fessor Forbes in his f History of British Starfishes*/ From the 

 number of fragments that came up of Sabella lumbricalis (?), the 

 sea-bottom at this place must have been covered with it. The 

 anchor brought up a quantity of clay resembling a red argilla- 

 ceous deposit at Seaton, near the mouth of the Tees, and belong- 

 ing to the new red sandstone series : it would be important to 

 know if the former were really of the same geological age as the 

 latter. 



The next day (Thursday) we only succeeded once in throwing 

 out the dredge, which came up filled with nothing but sand. 

 After this unsuccessful haul, which no doubt reminded our boat's 

 crew of their very unsuccessful fishing, we steered in for the land, 

 which we reached on Friday morning. 



A few more facts connected with the subject-matter of this 

 paper remain to be noticed. During the early part of the pre- 

 sent year, I procured from the boats specimens of four kinds of 

 shells which there is every reason to believe are not living on our 

 coasts at the present day ; these are Astarte elliptica, A. compressa 

 var. latior, Saxicava sulcata and Mya uddevallensis. 



The specimens of Astarte elliptica, Brown, generally resemble 

 those so abundant in Loch Gair, but some of them are larger 

 than any I have seen from that locality — the largest specimen 

 being If ths by 1 inch. A few of them resemble the specimen 

 figured by Capt. Brown under fig. 3. pi. 38. of his ' Conchology 

 of Great Britain/ 2nd ed. I am not aware that it has ever been 

 found alive in the German Ocean south of Aberdeenshire, where 

 it has been got by Professor Macgillivray ; it occurs in a fossil 

 state at Bridlington, in the basin of the Clyde, at Uddevalla, and 

 on the banks of the Dwina 240 versts above Archangel : from 

 the last-named locality, M. Verneuil has favoured me with spe- 

 cimens closely resembling the variety above-quoted. 



My specimens of Astarte compressa, variety latior, closely re- 

 semble the same variety found fossil at Bridlington. It differs in 

 no respect from the form at present living on our coasts except in 

 being much larger — the former being nearly an inch in diameter 

 (at Bridlington), while my largest specimen of the latter does not 

 exceed half an inch. There is still considerable obscurity hang- 

 ing over the variety latior : I am led to believe that it occurs at 

 Uddevalla; and probably the so-called Astarte multicostata of 

 Smith found in the Clyde beds is the same shell. I am not 

 aware that it has been found anywhere in a living state. 



* Pp. 138 and 139. 



S2 



