REPOKT ON THE GASTEROPODA. 259 



Station 141. December 17, 1873. Lat. 34° 41' S., long. 18° 36' E. 25 miles S.S.E. 

 from Cape of Good Hope. 98 fathoms. Green sand. Bottom temperature 49-5° F. 



Station 142. December 18, 1873. Lat. 35° 4' S., long. 18° 37' E. 45 miles 

 S.S.E. from Cape of Good Hope. 150 fathoms. Green sand. Bottom temperature 

 47° F. 



Shell. — Fusiform, thin, with a rather high subscalar spire, a small rounded apex, a very- 

 long base, a slightly thickened, reverted, and toothed outer lip, a long, narrowish moutb, 

 a twisted many-toothed pillar, and an expanded inner lip. Sculpture: Longitudinals — 

 there are on the last whorl about 70 riblets or flatly rounded threads following the lines of 

 growth, which last roughly and closely score the whole surface. Spirals — there are from 

 30 to 40 rather high and broader threads covering the whole surface ; those below the 

 suture are slightly stronger than the others ; the first in particular is so, and is followed 

 by a deeper furrow ; all these in crossing the longitudinals tend to rise into small 

 tubercles : below the suture is a very small flattened shoulder with an outward droop ; 

 this on the upper whorls is slightly excavated. The whole surface is fretted with fine 

 microscopic scratches. Colour pale ashy brown, glossy. Spire subscalar, high, its height 

 being to its breadth in the proportion of 13 to 6. Apex small, eroded. Whorls 8, flatly 

 convex, very slightly shouldered below the suture. Suture very oblique and strongly 

 marked. Mouth very small for the genus, long and narrow, with a small open canal in 

 front. Outer lip very slightly sinuated and ascending above, narrowly reversed, and a 

 little thickened, with many close-set, equal, short, narrow teeth ; at the point it is 

 very slightly sinuated and patulous, but not reversed. Inner lip spreads in a broad 

 thin glaze across the body ; it is slightly oblique, hardly concave, a little twisted and 

 bent back in front, with (about the middle) 8 to 10 larger or smaller teeth somewhat 

 irregularly distributed. H. 3*8 in. B. T5. Penultimate whorl, height - 6. Mouth, height 

 2-6, breadth 075. 



This interesting species has hitherto been known only in the solitary type specimen obtained by 

 Sir E. Belcher in H.M.S. " Samarang," 1843, off the Cape at a depth of 132 fathoms, and described 

 by A. Adams and L. Reeve in the Mollusca of the Expedition. That specimen being a very young 

 shell, a redescription from the specimens of the Challenger was necessary. Of these there are 

 three — one, the largest, described above ; the second with 6f whorls, but with a fully developed 

 outer lip, itself an aftergrowth on an earlier lip-edge still existing within the mouth ; the third has 

 6 whorls, but has the sharp thin edge and undeveloped pillar-teeth of the " Samarang " specimen. 

 The later development of the shell greatly detracts from the " sharply defined pattern of lattice- 

 work," the sculpture becoming much less crisp; the elongation and contraction of the body- whorl 

 diminishes the relative breadth, the increasing obliquity of the whorls elevates the spire, and the 

 subsutural canal ceases to be excavated and becomes merely a small oblique shelf. All these changes 

 modify considerably the relations of this Volute to the Eocene species referred to by Adams and 

 Reeve, and also by Mr Edwards in his "Eocene Mollusca" (Palasont. Soc), pp. 146, 155, and in 



