a865.] REVIEW OF THE NORTHERN BUCCINUMS. 382 



As a pleistocene fossil we have it from Maine, collected by Dr. 

 Packard ; from Riviere du Loup, Canada, by Principal Dawson j 

 and from Labrador, by the students of William's College. 



Certain figures of Middendorff are good representations of our 

 shell. But I am unwilling to regard it as an inhabitant of Lapland 

 and the sea of Ochotsk, without actual comparison of specimens. 



The great variety of station inhabited by this species has been 

 already alluded to. 



In conclusion, it may be remarked that although we have good 

 grounds for considering the common whelks of Europe and North 

 America, as they exist at the present day, to be good and distinct 

 species, it is by no means improbable that evidence may be found 

 in the more recent tertiary deposits to prove them to have been 

 derived from a common ancestry. At a former geological epoch, 

 it is not improbable that, owing to the different geographical con- 

 ditions, the climates of the two sides of the North Atlantic were 

 far less diverse than at present, when we find a very equable water 

 temperature on one side, and a variable one on the other, — causes 

 which must have their effect upon animal life in the lapse of cen- 

 turies. The question with regard to these Buccinums will prob- 

 ably be settled with greater ease than in most other cases, since 

 the material is abundant, and only requires to be collected with 

 the object in view. Specimens from the pleistocene deposits of 

 Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, etc., will have special interest. 



At present it seems proper to regard all forms as specifically dis- 

 tinct which present constant differences, whatever may have been 

 the origin of these differences. 



BUCCINTJM CYANEUM IJrilg. 



Tritonium undatum 0. Fabr., Fauna Groenlandica (1780), 395 (not of 

 Mueller). 



Buccinum cyaneum Bruguiere, Encyc. Meth., Vers., i (1792), 266. Beck, 

 in Kroyer's Tidsskrift, iv (1842), 84. Reeve, Conch. Icon., iii (1846), 

 Buc, ix, 69. 



Buccinum boreale Leach, Jour, de Phys., etc., lxxxviii (1819), 464. 

 Gray, Zool. of Beechey's Voy. (1839), 128 ; Brod. & Sow., Zool. Joum., 

 iv (1829), 375. 



Buccinum Humphrey sianum Moeller, in Kroyefs Tidsskrift, iv (1842), 

 85 (not of Bennett). 



Buccinum hydrophanum Hancock, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. [1], xviii 

 1846), 323 ; pi. v, 7. Reeve, Conch. Icon., iii (1847), Buc, xiii, 103. 



