35 



CONES, VOLUTES, MlTllES, AND OLIVES. 



These are names given by collectors to certain classes of 

 univalve shells distinguished by peculiarities of formation, more 

 or less distinct. We shall describe two or three of each, that 

 our readers may have some idea of the meaning of the terms 

 which are often used by those who speak or write on con- 

 chology. 



The family of Cones, called Conidce, is an extensive one, 

 considerably above two hundred species having been discovered. 

 ]\[any of them are very beautiful both in shape and colour, 

 so that they are highly valued by collectors; they are prin- 

 cipally found in the southern and tropical seas, upon sandy 

 bottoms, at depths varying from a few feet to seventeen fathoms. 

 The shells are generally thick and solid, rolled up, as it were, 

 into a conical form; the most familiar illustration that can be 

 given of this form is a sugar-loaf, which all these shells more 

 or less resemble in general outline, as thus — 



Cones arc either plain or coronated, that is, crowned, having 

 rows of projections round the top of the shell, like the second 

 of the above figures; and this forms a mark of division into 

 two classes, although these classes often run, as it were, one 

 into the other; some plain cones having slight iri'egularities of 

 surface, and some crowned ones being very nearly plain. 



The Common, or Ordinary Cone, [Conns generalis,) Plate V. 

 Fig. 1, is an elegantly-shaped and beautifully-marked shell, 

 having much the appearance of being carved out of some rare 

 kind of marbk\ The Lettered Cone, {Conns littoralis,) Eig. 2, 

 appears to be scribbled over with Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic 

 characters, and almost every species has something peculiar 

 in its markings; clouds and veins, and dots, and stripes, and 

 bands, of every conceivable shape and mode of arrangement, 



