358 NASSIDiE. 



and Cylichna alba ; extremely local, and nearly as rare. 

 The deep-sea soundings taken by Capt. Hoskyns in 

 H.M.S. ' Porcupine ' off the west coast of Ireland 

 yielded a very young specimen. Vienna tertiaries 

 (Homes, as C. corrugata); Faluns of Touraine (Cail- 

 liaud) . I also noticed in the Gottenburg Museum a very 

 young specimen procured by the Curator, Dr. Malm, 

 from the Eggers bank in Norway at a depth of 150 f. 



The animal is very lively and active. When placed 

 in a vessel of seawater it creeps rapidly to the surface, 

 being apparently actuated rather by a necessity of better 

 aerating its gills than by a curiosity to see the outer 

 world. It also floats, like the Rissoa. It is sometimes 

 preyed on by other zoophagous mollusks, judging from 

 the perforation of its shell. The discovery of this ter- 

 tiary fossil, as well as of Limopsis aurita, in a living state, 

 within a very circumscribed part of our sea-bed, shows 

 the imperfection of the zoological record, and militates 

 strongly against the doctrine of the successive creation 

 of species. We must do more than scrape here and 

 there to justify the conclusion somewhat hastily formed 

 by certain naturalists that all the British marine mol- 

 lusca are known ; and after all, what an insignificant 

 proportion do these bear to the marine mollusca of the 

 whole globe ! 



Homes referred his shell to the Buccinum corrugatum 

 of Brocchi; but that is evidently a species of Nassa, 

 and, according to Philippi, one of the innumerable vari- 

 eties of N. variabilis. 



To this section of Columbella belong : — 1. Buccinum 

 cinctum, Pulteney, as from Weymouth (Bryer), which 

 is West-Indian : 2. Purpura picta, Turton (not of 

 Scacchi), as from the British Channel; Cork Harbour 

 (Humphreys) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin) ; this also is 



