DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 75 



the deck ; the resemblance to duck eggs, mottled with brown and purple 

 spots, as if incubated for some time, was most striking. At first sight 

 I took them for some undescribed species of Doris, but on keeping one 

 of them in my hand I found that it gradually elongated and exposed 

 the apex of the spire, but of such size that I entertained doubts as to 

 its identity with Akera. The measurement of the largest when first 

 taken was as follows, — three inches in length, and two and a half in 

 diameter, and the weight, when we reached Roundstone, one and a half 

 to two and a half ounces. When exposed for some short time they 

 gradually contracted their mantles, became more flattened, and thus 

 exposed their shell to some extent. In about an hour after their cap- 

 ture they began to throw out a considerable quantity of thick glairy 

 mucus, exhaling a smell resembling iodine mixed with violets ; after 

 this they diminished considerably in size, and still further laid bare 

 their shells, which I perceived were of gigantic size. When replaced 

 in the water they never recovered their full size, but completely covered 

 their shell with their mantle. 



The men having extricated the vessel from her unpleasant position, 

 I prevailed on them to make several tacks, in hopes of securing more 

 specimens of this prize. This they did, but without success, having 

 kept close to, but outside, the rock, the water shoaling and the tide 

 receding, preventing us from keeping in our first course. Finding our 

 efforts vain, and the wind lulling, we took the opportunity, and returned 

 safely to Eoundstone. Here I had fresh water supplied to the prisoners, 

 and safely locked them up for the night. On giving the matter further 

 consideration, I came to the conclusion that the Akera lived here in 

 shallow water, for I had not more than two fathoms of rope when I first 

 threw out the dredge. I reflected that whatever power the wind exer- 

 cised, blowing as it did from the land, assisted by the receding of the 

 tide, tended to drive the vessel from the shore ; consequently, when we 

 reached the rock, we were considerably outside the line where Akera bul- 

 lata lived, and that we had but touched on them in a slanting or trans- 

 verse direction, and yet, in that spot of contact had captured fifteen ; 

 and further, that tacking outside the rock, we were going into deeper 

 water, and, consequently, further removed from their locality ; and, as I 

 observed before, the space between the rock and the shore had shoaled, 

 so that it was impossible for a vessel of our size to go over it. 



Having this conviction in my mind, the next day I procured a boat 

 carrying a small lug-sail, and drawing less than eighteen inches of water, 

 and steering to the ground, I had the satisfaction to find that my calcu- 

 lation was correct ; for on dredging over the ground laid down in my 

 mind's eye, within the rock, and closer to the shore, the tide being full 

 in, I obtained as many of those magnificent specimens as I desired — 

 thus corroborating the conclusion I had drawn of their inhabiting shallow 

 water. 



I shall now explain why I have been so particular in giving those 

 details as to locality and depth. It was in this creek — I might say this 

 very spot — where I obtained, in the year 1844, the rare Irish shell, 



