116
NOTES ON MARINE ANIMALS.
Nat. xii., p.p. 224-231) of a buried channel at Walthamstow
which is without doubt of the same age as the buried channel of
the Thames, namely Holocene. Hence it follows that the beds
from which we obtained our collection must belong to the later
part of the Holocene, and are certainly Post-Neolithic, if not
later than the Bronze age. Mr. R. Lydekker, F.R.S., has
already pointed out that the remains of Oxen (Bos longifrons)
from these beds represent a large breed, and therefore are of no
great antiquity. Professor Durst, of Zurich, who examined some
remains of the Bovidae in our possession from these beds,
pronounced one skull to belong to the Roman breed of cattle,
whilst the others were in his opinion of an equally late date.
Thus all the available chronological evidence points to a late
date for the origin of the wide spread alluvial beds and in this
view we concur.
NOTES ON MARINE ANIMALS OBTAINED
IN ESSEX WATERS IN 1902 AND 1903.
By H. C. SORBY, LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.
AS might be expected, this present summer has been
extremely bad for collecting, but still I have been able
to obtain a few animals which I had never before found in Essex.
Until I collected a number in the Orwell in Suffolk,
Terebellides stramii, Sars, had not been found in Britain for over
100 years, and then only a single specimen. This year for
the first time I obtained a fine one in the mud of the Colne, a
short distance below Brightlingsea Creek. We there also found
a single specimen of the Planarian worm Linens gracilis, Johnson.
Near the "Stones" at East Mersea, we found for the first time
a good example of Linens obscurus, Desor., which I had never
seen except in the extreme limits of the county, in the mud of
the River Stour, at Mistley. These Nemertians can elongate
themselves in a remarkable manner, and may be killed well
extended by adding a little menthol to the sea water in which
they are kept. When transferred from salt water to fresh, their
surface is quickly altered into a white mucus; and I was very
sorry not to find other specimens, in order to ascertain whether
the whole animal is so changed. This year by dredging off
Mersea, I obtained a single specimen of Haminca (Bulla) hydatis,