30 JOURNAL OF MARINE ZOOLOGY AND MICROSCOPY. 



downwards, but continuously ascends, the lower layers becoming 

 cleared by the activity of the lug- worm while new layers are added 

 above. Pale bluish-grey is the color of the sandy clay as left by 

 lug-worms and here a curious point comes in. What but this color is 

 the prevailing hue of our shales and marls ? Worm tracks and 

 castings of worms certainly closely allied to Arenicola are common 

 fossils in rocks from very early times, e.g. the burrows of A renicolites 

 in the Cambrian strata. Their food supply must have been much 

 the same — decaying vegetable matter. Thus the work they per- 

 formed was similar, and to this ceaseless activity ever coping with 

 the continuous accession of new decaying matter, we must look for the 

 explanation of the very slight admixture of carbonaceous matters in 

 the many sand-stones and shales of varied geological age, that by the 

 associated castings and other evidence, are plainly marked as having 

 once existed as the sandy and muddy shore lines of ancient seas ; seas 

 subject to the same storms as ours ; seas where the jetsam of weed 

 was thrown in piles upon the beach and where when covered up by 

 surface sand it decayed and was purified by the life activity of the 

 lug- worm, just as is happening continuously in the present. Truly, if 

 the history of the past be written in the rocks, it is among the events 

 of the present that we must search for the alphabet wherewith to 

 decipher the words and sentences of the book. 



Puee Chemicals. — Very often we are asked for the name of a firm supplying 

 absolutely reliable Chemicals, or such as are in so little demand as to be difficult to 

 procure in an ordinary way. It gives us, therefore, special pleasure in naming 

 Messrs. Harrington Bros, of Cork — whom personal experience has shown us to be in 

 every way worthy of confidence. What is also important, is that their prices 

 are most reasonable. 



British Echinoderms. — We are glad to welcome a goodly addition to our 

 knowledge of British starfishes and sea-urchins, in the form of the latest British 

 Museum Catalogue. Prof. Jeffrey Bell, who is the author, has here massed together 

 the essentials of much important literature, and sorted out many tangled skeins of 

 nomenclature. The task, weighty like all of its kind, has been conscientiously 

 carried through, and without vain striving after effect. Intended primarily as a 

 work of reference the book is without that fascination for the mere nature lover, 

 present in such high degree in Forbes' classic volume. Hence we cannot advise 

 any but the more earnest students of the group to add it to their shelves. 



A few transcription errors occur. Thus on page 119, Ophiura neglecta is twice 

 given as Forbes' name for AmpMura elegans, when in reality, Forbes, in both the 

 cases referred to, wrote Ophiocoma neglecta. Again on page 171, Jersey is given as a 

 habitat for Echinocardium pinnatifidum. To our positive knowledge, the island 

 of Herm is the nearest point to Jersey, where this animal occurs. By the way, it 

 would be a most useful plan, if authors of landmark works such as the one under 

 notice, were to publish a pithy list of errata and corrigenda in some scientific 

 periodical after the lapse of say a year from publication. Errors will creep in, be 

 one ever so watchful, and for want of a simple safeguard such as the above, are 

 needlessly endowed with, too often, a surprisingly long existence. 



