254 SOLENID^.. 



a rose colour, paler at the end and base. The epidermic 

 membrane, which closes the front of the shell, is colourless 

 and almost transparent. Through it shine the yellow- 

 tinged mantle and branchise. 



This elegant little Solen has an immense range in 

 depth, from six to one hundred fathoms, and appears 

 to be as much at home in shallow as in deep water. 

 Pure sand and sandy mud are the bottoms in which it 

 thrives. It is distributed all round our shores. A few 

 selected localities, illustrative of its range and distribu- 

 tion, may be mentioned: in the south, Guernsey (S. H.); 

 in seven fathoms at Weymouth and Dartmouth, and in 

 from ten to twenty-seven fathoms at vai'ious distances 

 from shore, off the coasts of Dorset and Devon (M' An- 

 drew and E. F.). On the east coast, off Kent (Capt. 

 Stanley) ; Scarborough (Bean) ; Northumberland (Al- 

 der); in sixty fathoms off Durham (Howse). On the 

 west coast, Ilfracombe, Tenby, and Fishguard (Jeffreys); 

 off Ormeshead in twelve fathoms, and Isle of JMan twelve 

 to thirty fathoms (M'Andrew and E. F.); in Scotland, 

 Hebrides, and coast of Ross-shire (Jeffreys); Clyde 

 (Smith) ; Loch Fyne (Barlee) ; in Zetland alive in seven, 

 sixty, seventy, eighty, and a hundred fathoms, and as far 

 as twenty-five and thirty miles from land (M'Andrew and 

 E. F.); Orkney (Thomas); Murray Firth in from fifteen 

 to thirty-four fathoms (M'Andrew). Aberdeenshire 

 (Macglllivray); Frith of Forth (Thomas and Knapp). 

 In Ireland, " though not a common species, it is found on 

 every side of the coast" (W.Thompson); Cape Clear 

 in sixty fathoms, and Bantry Bay in fifteen fathoms 

 (M'Andrew); Coast of Down eight fathoms (Patterson). 



It ranges throughout the European seas. 



