256 The Irish Naturalist. 



worm, or perhaps some kind of mollusc, say, a periwinkle for 

 instance." Clearly : and there is the pit at the end, where he 

 has gone underground ! If we had a spade we would dig him 

 out ! As we have not, let us trace quickly a few of these 

 grooves to the end, and see if we can catch sight of the crea- 

 ture in the act of making tracks. 



In doing this we find that some of them extend for a long 

 distance, one is measured twenty-three feet in length, but we 

 never catch the culprit ; and curiously enough, man}^ of the 

 tracks end beneath a piece of seaweed. It seems to be a very 

 intelligent kind of animal that finds its path always to the 

 same kind of shelter. lyct us turn the seaweed over and see 

 if it is underneath. No success ; but in doing so we come 

 acrOvSS a curious find ; attached to the seaweed is a little stone 

 which lies in the terminal pit, and is just as broad as the furrow 

 is wide (fig. 2). If we return to fig. i we shall see there also 

 is a piece of seaweed sticking to a stone, and lying quite close 

 to the end of the furrow. The murder is out ; after all no 

 animal was responsible, neither worm nor mollusc, simply a 

 tuft of seaweed, dragging a stone after it as it was drifted 

 seaward by the ebbing tide. The stone scores the furrow, 

 driving out the sand to make a ridge on each side of its trail, 

 and since, like every movement in nature, its progress is not 

 continuous but interrupted, so the bottom of the furrow is 

 not even, but ridged across at frequent intervals, and, as it 

 were, rhythmically. 



The story is instructive to the student of fossil markings, 

 but it would be rash to conclude that every long ridge and 

 furrow which has been attributed to annelids is a mere mare's 

 nest. Both worms and molluscs do make tracks in the sand, 

 and fossil examples of these are well known to exist, which, 

 though not altogether dissimilar to those we have described, 

 can be clearly distinguished by characters of their own. 



The Earthworms of Ireland.— Rev. H. Friend, whose new 

 address is " Fernbank, Cockermouth, Cumberland," desires live specimens 

 of Earthworms in damp moss, to enable him to make his lists of Irish 

 localities as complete as possible. 



