188 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER 



Shell. — Rather small, thin, chalkily porcellanous, ovate, with a shortish scalar spire, 

 a rounded apex, a marginated suture, whorls rounded and beset with small prickles, a 

 tumid base, and a very short pillar. Sculpture : Longitudinals — there are on each whorl 

 about 20 narrow feeble ribs, which do not extend to the upper suture and die out on the 

 base ; the lines of growth are fine, flexuous, and close-set. Spirals — there are on the 

 penultimate whorl four broadish but very slightly raised threads ; in crossing the longi- 

 tudinal riblets these rise into small prickles, or pointed tubercles ; on the body-whorl 

 there are 5 or 6 of these, and 4 or 5 more on the base, which latter are sharper, higher, 

 and less tubercled ; below the suture is a short, bare, more or less flat shoulder ; round 

 the base of the pillar is a small sharp spiral, which is continuous with the upper edge 

 of the canal ; the back of the pillar is scored with very undulating lines, the scars of the 

 old canal. Colour chalky white. Spire rather short, more or less scalar, with a convex 

 outline. Apex blunt and rounded, consisting of nearly 4 largish, smooth, turbinate, 

 convex whorls, of which the highest is immersed. Whorls 7, stumpy, convexly cylin- 

 drical, flatly shouldered above ; the last is tumid, with a very rounded, almost inflated, 

 and short base, on which, looked at from behind, the point of the pillar is barely dis- 

 cernible, and the edge of the canal does not project at alL Suture impressed, flatly 

 marginated below, very horizontal. Mouth : a perfect oval all round, having no angulation 

 above, and though cut on the edge, yet being in its sweep quite uninterrupted by the 

 canal in front. Outer lip thin, sharp, and patulous, very prominent but barely angulated 

 at the point of the base in advance of the pillar ; the canal is shallow and open, with a 

 very reverted funnel-edge. Inner lip concave, with a thick, narrow, defined labial pad 

 running down the very short pillar, whose point is sharp and expanded, but not flanged. 

 Operculum plain-edged, small, triangular, slightly subspiral, having its apex terminal and 

 bent in towards the left. H. - 57 in. B. 0"33. Penultimate whorl, height 0"14. 

 Mouth, height 0-25, breadth 0"2. 



Mr Marrat considers this species " very closely allied to Nassa woodivardi, Forbes," and from 

 this fact I have derived its name. It is certainly liker that than anything else I know, but is very 

 markedly distinct. That species has a conical spire, a long, narrow, oblique body-whorl, with a 

 short penultimate whorl, and a produced base, on which the pillar and canal-edge project prominently ; 

 the whorls are conical ; the suture is marginated not so much by a bare shoulder below, as by a 

 row of coarse blunt tubercles ; its ribs and spirals are broad and square ; and their intersection 

 produces square and very blunt tubercles, of which there are about 30 in each whorl ; the outer lip 

 is thick and toothed, and the pillar is comparatively long. The absence of the crimson-brown bands 

 of that species proves nothing ; for these might quite naturally be absent in deep-sea specimens. 



£uccinu?n spinulosum, Phil. (Enum. vol. ii. p. 191, tab. xxvii. fig. 13), seems to have many points 

 of resemblance. In shape as well as in sculpture it is very like ; only both ribs and spirals are much 

 stronger ; the mouth, too,'is oval, but it is pointed above and is longer below, Nassa cphamilla having 

 a broader and more truncate base. My estimate on all these points, however, is based on Philippi*s 

 description and figure, the species itself being unknown to me. 



