296 
ld 
about midway between tide marks, they are very 
numerous. In one large area situated not far from a 
sewage outfall I marked out a rectangular portion six 
yards long and two yards wide, which was found to contain 
404 castings, that is an average of 34 per square yard. 
These castings were small, and the worms which formed 
them probably did not exceed about five inches in length. 
The conditions described above for Musselburgh are 
closely reproduced on many parts of the Lancashire coast, 
for example on the extensive sands in the Ribble estuary. 
At Piel (near Barrow-in-Furness) the main source of 
supply of Arenécola consists of an area fully half a mile 
square lying to the north of the old steamboat pier. The 
worms are most plentiful along the eastern side of this 
area, that is adjacent to the railway embankment. They 
do not extend down to low-water mark, even of neap tides, 
as they would then be in the tide-way (the channel to 
Barrow). The large area above described is beyond the 
reach of tidal currents. There are other beds in which 
Arenicola is plentiful, but they are not much visited by 
fishermen in search of bait. The surface layer consists of 
fine clean yellow sand to a depth of about six inches. 
Below this it is black in colour and strongly charged with 
organic matter. The number of castings in the large area 
described above varies from ten to twenty-four per square 
yard, on the best portions they average about twenty. The 
largest worms obtained are about seven inches in length.* 
Lugworms are usually found in the warmer parts of 
the year (late spring, summer and early autumn) on 
digging in the sand to a depth of one to two feet, but the 
large Laminarian forms seem te burrow more deeply and 
are found at a depth of nearly three feet. In frosty and 
* T thank Mr. Andrew Scott, A.L.S., of the Lancashire and 
Western Sea Fisheries Laboratory, Piel, for sending me this informa- 
tion. 
