40 Mr. J. D. Siddall on the 



dredgings yield a considerable number of arenaceous spe- 

 cimens. 



No. 5. Burton Marsh (8 miles from the sea ; estuary widen- 

 ing rapidly ; water rather salt). The material examined from 

 here was scraped from the channels and pools left by the rece- 

 ding tide. It contained Foraminifera, but nothing requiring 

 special comment. 



No. 6. Parkgate (estuary 2 miles wide; water salt). Sand 

 scraped from low- water mark on the shore, also dredged. Not 

 very good. 



No. 7. Holywell (estuary 4 miles wide). Collections made 

 by scraping and skimming the " grassy " pools on the muddy 

 shore near high-water mark, and also the sandy mud at low- 

 water mark. In a very rich gathering of Rhizopoda made here 

 on the 19th of April, 1875, Gromia oviformis and Diffiugia 

 pyriformis and aculeata were very plentiful; and some very fine 

 living specimens of Polystomella striato-punctata then obtained 

 were afterwards kept under observation for several days. They 

 were for a few days particularly active, and crawled about the 

 cells in which they were placed for examination. After two 

 or three days, however, the pseudopodia of some became finally 

 retracted, and the sarcode showed a tendency to become granu- 

 lated and condensed into an oval mass in the centre of each 

 chamber of the shell ; the following note, having reference 

 to this aggregation of the sarcode, was made at the time : — 

 "... Twelve chambers of shell visible externally. The 

 granular oval contents of chambers nos. 2, 4, and 9 (from the 

 aperture) were furnished with cilia, distinctly visible with a 

 power of 400 diameters, and swam freely about in the chambers; 

 on the contents of the other chambers no cilia were visible, and 

 the form assumed by the contracted sarcode was not so definite. 

 Colour of sarcode brownish yellow ; moving bodies rather more 

 dense, and therefore very slightly darker in colour." The 

 cilia were very plain ; and the writer was corroborated in his 

 observation by the Rev. J. L. Bedford, F.L.S., who was present 

 at the time. 



No. 8. Hilbre Island (estuary 5 miles wide). The material 

 collected hei-e from among the rocks between the " Little Eye" 

 and "Middle Island," at dead low water, and also that from no. 7, 

 were very good gatherings, and especially rich in arenaceous 

 forms. The difference in the appearance of the shells obtained 

 from these "salt-water" localities and of those from nearer 

 Chester, where the water is scarcely "brackish," was very 

 marked — the specimens from the former having fine well-deve- 

 loped shells, while those from the latter sources are generally 

 small and delicate, and often destitute of any calcareous matter 



