HELIX. | ;, 1 



DESCRIPTION. 



ANIMAL whitish, head and tentacles slate color ; foot 

 slender, semitransparent, length less than twice the dia- 

 meter of the shell, terminating acutely. Cavity of the 

 tentacles apparent, when they are retracted, by two dark 

 lines with a white space between. 



SHELL sub-globose ; epidermis brownish, or chestnut, 

 covered with numerous, sharp, rigid hairs ; whorls five, 

 rounded ; suture distinct ; aperture contracted, very nar- 

 row, almost closed by an elongated, lamelliform tooth, 

 situated on the pillar-lip, and extending from the centre 

 of the base, within the junction of the lip with the outer 

 whorl, into the edge of the aperture ; lip narrow, very 

 much depressed, and reflected against the outer whorl, 

 with a deep cleft or fissure near the centre of the inner 

 margin ; umbilicus wholly covered ; base convex. 



Greatest transverse diameter nearly one half of an 

 inch ; ordinary size less than one-fourth. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Inhabits the Middle, 

 and all the Western States, where it is common, and the 

 New England States more rarelv. In Massachusetts it 



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is an uncommon shell. 



REMARKS. This is a very peculiar species. The sin- 

 gular abrupt fissure on the inner edge of the lip distin- 

 guishes it from every other, except the three succeeding 

 species, which bear a slight resemblance to it in this re- 

 spect. It varies in diameter from one-sixth to one-half an 



