302 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



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 Arenicola 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 to burrow more deeply and 



are found at a depth of nearly three feet. In frosty and 



■>' I thank Mr. Andrew Scott, A.L.S., of the Lancashire and 

 Western Sea Fisheries Laboratory, Piel, for sending me this informa- 

 tion. 



