98 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
make their way into these masses when young and live there un- 
til too large to pass through the small apertures that admitted 
them in the first place. They were also found in old conch 
shells. The glassy spicules easily become detached, and the bot- 
toms of glass dishes in which they were killed were often cov- 
ered with a frosting made by thousands of these spicules which 
had fallen off. Several of our party had very sore fingers from 
handling the ‘‘sea scorpions,’’ and sometimes their hands were 
made numb for several days. The first effect is much like that 
caused by handling the cactus known as the ‘‘prickly pear.”’ 
The setz can sometimes be removed by scraping with a knife, 
but they usually caused discomfort for several days. 
As a matter of fact, our fingers and hands were in bad condi- 
tion for a considerable portion of the time. Between the needle- 
like sete of these worms, the innumerable glassy spicules of 
many of the sponges handled almost daily, and encountered 
also in raking over the sand secured in dredging; and the ugly 
spines of the ‘‘black sea-egg’’ (Diadema), we were constantly 
having sore fingers. Some of us wore rubber gloves and saved 
the hands, but most of the party found that these rather clumsy 
contrivances interfered with our work; or else excused our lack 
of forethought on that plea, and suffered accordingly. 
Another interesting annelid was secured by me when collect- 
ing off Lord’s Castle on the east coast the preceding year. It 
inhabits a large, very dark red, fleshy sponge which is covered 
with rough points and reticulations like the surface of the large 
starfish Oreaster. This sponge was very tough in texture and 
could hardly be torn apart with the hands, but had to be cut 
with a knife. The annelid, which probably is Laodice furcata, 
lives in tunnel-like passages in the sponge, which are frequently 
branched. The worms were yellow in color, very long, some- 
times as much as eighteen inches, and difficult to extract entire 
from the sponge, as they broke very easily. Sometimes, by 
turning the cut surface of the sponges to the hot sun, these 
worms would come out of their own accord. 
The most curious thing about them, however, was the long 
tubes of parchment-like consistency with which they lined the 
tunnel-like passages in the sponge; showing that the worm lined 
the passages through which they wandered, and not simply a 
