280 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



No one will deny that Dr. Stoliczka had a right to entertain his own 

 peculiar views, and to express them freely; but it is to he regretted, for his 

 own sake, that he has shown through all of his Indian Pakeontology (which, 

 aside from this blemish and some eccentricities of opinion, is a creditable 

 enough production), such a chronic fault-finding spirit as almost to assume 

 the attitude of a "common scold" toward all other palaeontologists — a char- 

 acter probably not at all applicable to him in his daily intercourse with his 



fellow-men. 



A c t ec o ii subellipticus, M. & H 



Plate 19, fig. 16.* 



Actceon subellipticus, Meek and Ilaydi-u (1856), Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1'liilad., VIII, 63. 

 Solidula (Jctmoninat) subelliptica, Meek and llaydeu (1860), ib., XII, 185. 



Solidula subelliptica, Meek and Hayden (1*60), ib., 424. — Meek (1864), Smithsonian Check-List N. Am. 

 Cret. Fossils, IT. 



Shell small, narrow-subovate, or short-subfusiform ; spire short, pointed; 

 volutions four and a half, those of the spire moderately convex, last one large, 

 but not very ventricose, narrowed and somewhat produced below; suture 

 distinct; surface polished and ornamented by hue, revolving striae, a little 

 less than the spaces between, and composed of small punctures, which also 

 range parallel to the lines of growth, about eight to ten of the revolving striae 

 being seen on the second turn, and some twenty-seven or twenty-eight on 

 the last one ; aperture narrow, widest at the middle, acutely angular above, 

 and very narrowly rounded below ; columella with apparently a small, oblique 

 fold. 



Length, 0.22 inch ; breadth, 0.12 inch; apical angle, about 50°. 



This shell seems to he nearly related to Actason costutus, Bella rdi, from 

 the Nummulitic deposits of Nice (Mem. Geo!. Soc. France (2d ser.), IV, pi. 12, 

 fig. 4), but is smaller, and evidently has its aperture more narrowly rounded 

 in front, though this character is exaggerated in our figured specimen by the 

 broken condition of the lip below. Our specimen is not in a condition to 

 show the fold on the columella clearly and satisfactorily, and this has led to 

 the suspicion that it may belong to the genus AcUwnina, though it seems 

 more probably to be an Actaon. In adopting the conclusion that the genus 

 Actcnon is identical with Solidula. Fischer, as maintained by some good 

 authorities, we ranged this species under that older' name. If (lie types 

 of these two groups, however, represent two distinct genera, then this shell 

 will, if not an Actceonina, have to stand under Actceon proper, as it is too thin 



* This figure is magnified about two and a half diameters. 



