Il6 NOTES OX MARINE ANIMALS. 



Nat. xii., p.p. 224-231) of a buried channeJ at Walthamstow 

 which is without doubt of the same age as the buried channel of 

 the Thames, namely Holocene. Hence it follows that the beds 

 from which we obtained our collection must belong to the later 

 part of the Holocene, and are certainly Post-Neolithic, if not 

 later than the Bronze age. Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., has 

 already pointed out that the remains of Oxen (Bos longifvons) 

 frpm these beds represent a large breed, and therefore are of nO' 

 great antiquity. Professor Diirst, of Zurich, who examined some 

 remains of the Bovidae in our possession from these beds, 

 pronounced one skull to belong to the Roman breed of cattle,, 

 whilst the others were in his opinion of an equally late date. 

 Thus all the available chronological evidence points to a late 

 date for the origin of the wide spread alluvial beds and in this 

 view we concur. 



NOTES ON MARINE ANIMALS OBTAINED 

 IN ESSEX WATERS IN 1902 AND 1903. 



By H. C. SORBY, LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



AS might be expected, this present summer has been 

 extremely bad for collecting, but still I have been able 

 to obtain a few animals which I had never before found in Essex.. 

 Until I collected a number in the Orwell in Suffolk, 

 TereheUidcs sirceinii, Sars, had not been found in Britain for over 

 100 years, and then only a single specimen. This year for 

 the first time I obtained a fine one in the mud of the Colne, a 

 short distance below Brightlingsea Creek. We there also found 

 a single specimen of the Planarian worm Linens gracilis, Johnson.. 

 Near the " Stones" at East IMersea, we found for the first time 

 a good example of Linens ohscuvns, Desor., which I had never 

 seen except in the extreme limits of the county, in the mud o£ 

 the River Stcur, at Mistley. These Nemertians can elongate 

 themselves in a remarkable manner, and may be killed well 

 extended by adding a little menthol to the sea water in which 

 they are kept. When transferred from salt water to fresh, their- 

 surface is quickly altered into a white mucus ; and I was very 

 sorry not to find other specimens, in order to ascertain whether 

 the whole animal is so changed. This year by dredging off 

 Mersea. I obtained a single specimen of Haminea (Bnlla) hydafis^ 



