Mr. A. Hancock on some new species of Shells. 323 



scapula? and the posterior surface of some of their muscles, it 

 goes along them in descending, and turns backwards to envelope 

 in part the upper surface of the pericardium, and above all, on 

 each side and behind the pericardium, the upper surface of the 

 two pairs of clavicles with their muscles. From thence it passes 

 lastly on to the abdominal muscles. A very large fold of the pe- 

 ritoneum, proceeding from the dorsal side and the anterior side of 

 the body, envelopes the intestine, causing it to form a very large 

 mesentery, then the stomach, the liver, the viscera and the 

 pancreas. 



XXXVI. — A List of Shells dredged on the West Coast of Davis's 

 Strait ; with Notes and Descriptions of eight new species. By 

 Albany Hancock. 



[With a Plate.] 



In 1841 I received the shells comprised in the following list; 

 they were collected by my friends Messrs. Warham and Harrison, 

 masters of whaling vessels belonging to the port of Newcastle. 

 These gentlemen took with them dredges for the purpose of 

 gathering marine productions during their Arctic voyage ; and so 

 effectually did they use these implements, that in one fortnight's 

 dredging, the only opportunity that occurred, they procured, be- 

 sides a considerable collection of Crustacea, thirty-four species of 

 Testaceous Mollusca, — as many as were obtained by Captains 

 Parry and Ross during their various northern expeditions. 



The collection contains many of the novelties discovered by 

 our Arctic navigators, and also eight species which appear to be 

 undescribed. The whole, with the exception of one, a littoral 

 species, which was obtained from the rocks in the same locality, 

 were dredged in a small bay or harbour, in a deep inlet on the 

 west coast of Davis's Strait (lat. 66° 3(y, long. 68°), on a bottom 

 composed chiefly of a stiffish blue clay. At low tide there are 

 from twelve to fifteen fathoms water in the bay ; but during spring 

 tides the rise is five fathoms, an unusual height for those lati- 

 tudes. The prevailing rocks in the neighbourhood are trap and 

 granite. 



Though I might have confined myself to describing merely the 

 new species, it seems preferable to give the list entire ; as such 

 lists are useful in forwarding our information on the geogra- 

 phical distribution of species ; and besides, many of those already 

 described are very little known. At present, too, the Arctic shells 

 possess a peculiar interest derived from the recent theories re- 

 specting the early glacial period of Europe, to the full apprecia- 

 tion of which a critical knowledge of species is necessary. 



There are four or five species in the list related to Buccinum 



U2 



