28 



keel. Voung specimens are nacreous and nearly colourless on the upper surface, with only a 

 light flesh-red tint, which is more apparent on the penultimate and ultimate whorls, these two 

 being in a fine specimen (from Stat. 59) yellow near the suture. Base with a nearly perpendicular 

 zone below the keel, hearing about 4 rows of scales, similar to those of the upper surface, then 

 flat, with radiating, riblike and nine concentric lirae, which are scaly near the periphery and 

 beaded towards the centre. Colour of the base yellowish, its centre covered by a rounded, 

 porcellaneous pad, which spreads in the most adult specimen over a large space of the base, 

 being more circumscribed towards the aperture (especially in younger specimens) where it ends 

 in an obuse, toothlike angle. Aperture squarely-oval, upper part of the outer margin curved, 

 thin, nacreous, columellar margin thick, rounded, basal part rather thin and slightly expanded. 

 Interior of the aperture nacreous, but not strongly iridescent, smooth; the margin only slightly 

 crenulated by the spiral lirae. 



In one very young specimen, a small umbilical slit is distinctly present, it is surrounded 

 by a row of white beads, which seem to be covered as soon as the callous pad becomes more 

 developed. Operculum oval, thick, its outer surface white, convex near the margins, slightly 

 impressed near the centre, where it is also slightly tuberculiferous. Its inner surface is flat, 

 brown, with two broad and about ten narrower whorls, around a subcentral nucleus. 



Lat. (without spines) 24, alt. 17, apert. alt. 8, lat. 11 Mill. 



This species varies more or less in the altitude of the spire, even in specimens of about 

 the same diameter, in the place where the spiral rows of scales appear and in the length of the 

 spines. I have hesitated in erecting a new subgenus for it, but I could not locate it in any of 

 the existing subgenera. It has somewhat the appearance of Guildfordia, but differs in its suture 

 being spiniferous in the upper whorls; the callous pad of the base is not provided with a pit 

 as in Guildfordia. The subgenus may be characterised by the slender spines and the shape of 

 the porcellaneous pad. I think its nearest ally is Turbo (Calcar) henicus Wats. (Challenger Exp. 

 part 62, p. 130, PI. 6, fig. 11) the description agreeing in many particulars, but it may be 

 distinguished at once, by that species being beaded instead of scaly as in the new species. The 

 operculum has many features in common. 



The radula of one of the smaller specimens, has given only an imperfect result, by its 

 great brittleness; in cleaning it, it feil in pieces. As far as I can judge, it has much affinity 

 with that of Bolma. 



2. Astralium (Bolma) modestum Reeve, var. girgyllus Reeve. 



Reeve. Conch. Ie. Vol. XIII, Trochus, fig. 53. 

 KlENER. Coq. Viv. Vol. X, Calcar, p. 6, PI. 76, fig. 1. 

 Trvon. Man. of Conch. Vol. X, p. 230, PI. 55, fig. 65. 



Stat. 100. 6°n'N., i20°37'.5E. 450 M. Dead coral. 1 Spec. 



The only specimen is a clead shell, with the spines broken; the suture is shallower, the 

 whorls are less inflated, than in the only specimen I could compare. (A. girgyllus is only 

 known from China, but the circumstance that it has been collected at such a great depth, with 



2S 



