73 



CHAPTER YI. 

 FAMILIES OE PECTIXIBEAXCHS. 



Oh, for an eye to scan the depths of ocean ; 

 To note where dwell those strange and wondrous fonns 

 Instinct with life, that work in caves, — it may be 

 Where sunbeams wander never ; nor soft airs, 

 Breathing perfumes from clover-fields at evening, 

 Shed fragrance as they pass. 



We now proceed to the consideration of different shells 

 that pertain to the Gastropod class^ with especial reference 

 to their molluscous inhabitants, and the exquisite variety 

 of form and tinting which are wrought or painted by those 

 artists of the ocean. 



Eamily L Conyolijta. 



This family comprises an interesting series, in which the 

 whorls of the shell are convoluted one over the other, with- 

 out obliquely descending, so that the sutural extremity re- 

 mains almost upon a plane with the top of the spire. 



