126 INTEODUCTION TO COXCHOLOGY. 



elongated spouted tube, situated in the middle of the area, 

 between the varices, in place of the usual nodule or tubercle. 

 These tubes bear no resemblance to the spines which 

 are so conspicuously developed in the Murex temiissima, 

 and which, being uniformly open, are modifications of 

 scales or fronds ; the tube of the T^j^Jiis is closed, and is 

 apparently destined for some purpose important to the well- 

 being of the animal. Unique in its construction, no other 

 turbinated genus presents the least analogy. 



This genus was founded on a fossil species, the Murex 

 ietrapterus, but subsequently found living in the Mediter- 

 ranean. Since then, four other recent species have been 

 described by Mr. Broderip, of which two were collected by 

 Mr. Cuming at Salango, West Columbia, and the Bay 

 of Caraccas, and one by Captain Sir Edward Belcher, 

 at Cape Blanco, "West Africa. Three species were subse- 

 quently added by the same enterprising traveller during 

 the voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur, in localities very remote 

 from each other. The first was discovered in from seven to 

 eighteen fathoms water in the Gulf of Nicoya and Bay of 

 Guayaquil; the second was dredged on the UAgulhas 

 Bank, Cape of Good Hope, at a depth of upwards of fifty 

 fathoms ; and the third, the smallest of the series, was found 



