264 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



Ocean in which it is discovered. I have unfortunately not 

 been successful in procuring a representation of it, but I 

 may observe that it differs but little from the Sepia Octopa- 

 dia. It is discovered in great numbers in many parts of the 

 Greenland Seas ; and, from having procured many from the 

 stomachs of the narwhale, I am inclined to believe that it 

 forms a part of the food of that species of cetacea. 



ORDER I.— MULTIVALVES.* 



GENUS.— CHITON. 



SPECIES. 



CHITON RUBER, 

 i 



OR 



COAT OF MAIL SHELL. 



The shell of this animal is oblong, elevated on the back, of 

 a reddish hue ; it is variegated with eight valves, divided on 

 each side, from the anterior margin to the beak, into two 

 compartments, the anterior transversely situated, the striae 

 of which bend and cross the posterior compartment ; the 

 spaces between the striae are broad ; the border is rough ; it 

 barely measures more than half an inch in length, or more 

 than a quarter in breadth.f Captain Phipps took some of 

 these in a trawl on the north side of Spitzbergen, and is 

 also common in Scotland on rocks at low water.J 



* Section III. Gen. LIII. Bretvster's Conchology. 



The classification and numerical arrangement of the Testaceous Mol- 

 lusca here adopted is the same as '.that followed by Sir David Brewster, 

 in the excellent article " Conchology," inserted in his Cyclopedia. 



t Ibid. 



% Lin. Syst. Nat. 1107, 7. Brewster's Cyclopedia, vol. vi. Part i. 

 p. 102. 



