ANNELIDA. 
101 
sand, limestone, shells, aluminous shale, sandstone, and other 
rocks. 
The annelids are not devoid of interest even in an economical 
point of view. All round the coasts of Britain the Arenicola 
marina (common lobworm) is generally used as bait, and 
here and there Nephthys and Nereilepas facata. On the pro¬ 
lific shores of the Channel Islands the great abundance of 
the Nereidse is of considerable importance to the inhabitants, 
since two of the most plentiful (viz. Nereis 
cultrifera , Grube, and N. diversicolor , Muller) 
are extensively used in fishing. The fisher¬ 
men constantly search for them with a pointed 
instrument resembling a spear (see annexed 
Woodcut), and keep them in vessels amongst 
a little sand and seaweed. They are much 
employed in catching whiting, the latter, again, 
being used as bait in conger-fishing. In the 
same islands one of the most esteemed baits 
is the large Marphjsa sanguinea , which reaches 
the length of two feet. It is termed “ varme ” 
by the fishermen, and is highly prized both 
for the capture of ordinary white fish and dog¬ 
fish. The Annelids are kept alive in vessels 
amongst seaweed—or rather the anterior segments only, no 
more than three or four inches of this region being retained, 
since experience has shown that, unless so treated, the animals 
will break otf posterior fragments, which, putrefying, soon 
cause the death of the whole. The natives of the Fiji group 
much esteem a form allied to the British Lysidice ninetta as an 
article of diet, and they predict its annual appearance in their 
seas with unerring precision by observing the phases of the 
moon, as at Samoa. It is called u Palolo ” by the Samoans 
and Tongese, and “ Mbalolo,” Dr. Denis Macdonald informs 
us *, by the Fijians. This annelid occurs in numbers so vast 
that it is collected by the natives as a dainty and nutritious 
food; and it is so much prized that formal presents of it are 
often sent considerable distances from certain chiefs to others, 
* Linn. Trans, vol. xxii. p. 237 (18-59). 
