64 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



Proceeding to an examination of the shells, the main subject of this illustration, we find that 

 the series massed together in the background includes some of the largest and most characteristic 

 Barrier district types. On the extreme left is a ponderous Helmet shell. Cassis cornitta, weighing 

 about eight pounds, and over fourteen inches long. It represents a group of shells extensively 

 used in the manufacture of cameos. A little below it, to the right, is a Melon or Boat shell, 

 Cymbiiiin ailiiopicitni, of even larger proportions, including within its capacious cavity a large 

 specimen of the rare pearly Nautilus, Nautilus stciiouiphilits. This Melon shell is held in 

 high esteem by the Torres Strait and Barrier-district natives, being used by them, as has been 

 previously related, as a bailer for their cranky canoes and for many other purposes. Two 

 mother-of-pearl shells, Mcleagina margaritijcra, of the largest size, weighing respectively six 

 and seven pounds, form the immediate background to the series. Two examples of what are 

 known as Spider, or Scorpion shells, genus Pteroceras, conspicuously recline against the 

 right and the left peripheries of the two pearl shells. The species to the left represents 

 the exceedingly common seven-spiked P. Iambi, and that to the right the rarer six-armed 

 Pteroceras cliiragra. Both species, although the last-named one more particularly, are notable 

 for the brilliant pink lining of their shell apertures. 



Farther towards the right, in this same illustration, there occurs, standing obliquely on end, 

 one of the large variegated Triton shells, Triton tritoiiis, which, with a circular hole about half 

 an inch in diameter, bored a few inches from the pointed apex, is used as a trumpet by the natives 

 of Torres Strait. The deep, sonorous, blast that can be evolved by a pair of healthy native lungs 

 from the recesses of this grand conch would arouse the " Seven Sleepers," and the ghosts of 

 all their ancestry. It is stated in many natural history works that the sound is obtained 

 from the shell by laying it to the lips, and blowing across the punctured hole after the manner 

 of playing a flute. The blast is actually produced by covering the hole completely with the 

 mouth, and blowing as when sounding a bugle. The large Helmet shell, Cassis, is bored 

 at its apex, and similarly employed as a wind instrument by the Torres Strait natives. The 

 shell, with an elongate spout-like projection of its margin, technically termed the siphon, that 

 occupies an oblique position immediately beneath the Triton, represents one of the largest known 

 Gasteropods, or snail-like molluscs, and is, with reference to all essential structural details, very 

 nearly related to the European Red-whelk, or "Buckle," Ftistis antiqmis. "Spindle" shells, on 

 account of their suggestively tapering contours, represent the collective name by which the hun- 

 dred or more discovered specific varieties of this genus are known to conchologists. Among these 

 the giant of its tribe, now under notice, is distinguished by the title of Fitsits praboseidiformis. 

 The particular specimen in the author's possession, here figured, is only one inch short of two 

 feet. Two specimens of the large white Murex, or Woodcock, shell, Mnrcx ramosus, and a 

 Pearly or Tiger Nautilus, Nautilus pompilins, complete the list of the larger group in the 

 background. 



