ANNELIDA. 



101 



sand, limestone, shells, aluminous shale, sandstone, and other 

 rocks. 



The annelids are not devoid of interest even in an economical 

 point of view. All round the coasts of Britain the Arenicola 

 marina (common lobworm) is generally used as bait, and 

 here and there Nepkthya and Nereilepas fucata. On the pro- 

 lific shores of the Channel Islands the great abundance of 

 the Nereidse is of considerable importance to the inhabitants, 

 since two of the most plentiful (viz. Nereis 

 cultrifera, Grube, and N. divei-sicohr, Miiller) 

 are extensively used in fishing. The fisher- 

 men constantly search for them with a pointed 

 instrument resembling a spear (see annexed 

 woodcut), and keep them in vessels amongst 

 a little sand and seaweed. They are much 

 employed in catching whiting, the latter, again, 

 being used as bait in conger-fishing. In the 

 same islands one of the most esteemed baits 

 is the large Marphysa sanyuinea, which reaches 

 the length of two feet. It is termed " varme " 

 by the fishermen, and is highly prized both 

 for the capture of ordinary white fish and dog- 

 fish. The annelids are kept alive in vessels 

 amongst seaweed — or rather the anterior segments only, no 

 more than three or four inches of this region being retained, 

 since experience has shown that, unless so treated, the animals 

 will break off posterior fragments, which, putrefying, soon 

 cause the death of the whole. The natives of the Fiji group 

 much esteem a form allied to the British Lysidice ninetta as an 

 article of diet, and they predict its annual appearance in their 

 seas with unerring precision by observing the phases of tin- 

 moon, as at Samoa. It is called " Palolo " by the Samoans 

 and Tongese, and " Mbalolo," Dr. Denis Jlacdonald informs 

 us *, by the Fijians. This annelid occurs in numbers so vast 

 that it is collected by the natives as a dainty and nutritious 

 food ; and it is so much prized that formal presents of it are 

 often sent considerable distances from certain chiefs to others. 



* Linn. Trans, vol. xsii. p. 237 (18"<!>>. 



