Prof. T. R. Jones — Destruction of Marine Animals. 5-33 



At the base of the ray the lower of its two rows of marginal plates 

 is separated from the adambulacral plates bordering the arm groove, 

 by the pavement-like intermediary plates of the actinal surface. In 

 the fresh specimens these are covered by a coarse granulation which 

 sometimes almost takes on the character of spines. They are 

 arranged in tolerably regular rows at the bases of the rays of 

 Greasier hulbiferus ; but at the point where each ray narrows there 

 is only one row of small intermediary plates left on each side 

 between the marginal and the adambulacral plates. Farther out, 

 where the ray swells again, the intermediary plates inci'ease in size, 

 though they are limited to one row, which comes to an end a short 

 distance from the extremity of the ray. 



II. — Notes on the Sudden Destkuction of Marine Animals. 

 By Prof. T. Eupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., etc. 



IN the Geological Magazine, Vol. II. 1865, p. 141, is the 

 following interesting note on this subject : — 



" Having often been puzzled to comprehend the manner in which, 

 in some instances, large numbers of marine animals, such as Cuttle- 

 fishes, Crabs, Lobsters, and even Fish and Reptiles, have in past 

 ages suddenly perished in their own element and been entombed, 

 probably on or near the very spots where they had been hatched out, 

 and which they had frequented all their lives, it has occurred to me 

 that any suggestion as to causes now in operation which might have 

 produced then, as now, the same result, will not be unwelcome 

 to the geological student. In the ' Principles of Geology ' (7th 

 edit. 1847) Sir C. Lyell mentions (p. 743), among other causes, 

 the shifting of currents which might result in the carrying away of 

 banks of sand and mud, habitats of vast colonies of cockles and 

 other molluscs ; and the effect of a storm in tearing up and casting 

 ashore from their more solid bed great heaps of the edible oyster in 

 the estuary of the Firth of Forth in Ib'Sl, and numbers of living 

 whelks. 



" At Stornoway, in the Island of Lewis, the largest of the Hebrides, 

 is a depot for Fishermen, from whence large quantities of Lobsters 

 are every week despatched by steam-packet to Glasgow (a distance 

 of 250 miles). These crustaceous delicacies are not packed until the 

 latest moment, being required to reach London ' strong alive.' 

 During the week the daily ' catches ' are placed in large wooden 

 boxes (perforated on every side so as to allow a free current of water 

 to pass through them), and sunk in the sea at the end of the pier 

 within the bay. On one occasion, when more than 1,000 lobsters 

 had been so boxed up, a heavy fall of rain during the night brought 

 down so much fresh water that in the morning every lobster was 

 found dead, and the whole were sold, at a heavy loss, within the 

 island. 



" My friend Mr. Day, of Charmouth, informs me that after the 

 sudden thaw at the end of January and the beginning of February 

 (1865) such large floods of snow-water .flowed into the sea along 



