192 



metres in length. The species has been collected at four localities on the 

 Labrador coast (where it occurs in a little shallower water) by the Stearns 

 expedition in 1882 ; at Ashe Inlet, Hudson Strait, by Dr. R. Bell in 1884; 

 and it had previously been recorded as a Greenland shell by Fabricius and 

 Moller. It has also been collected in the Pleistocene deposits at the 

 Chaudiere Station, near Quebec, and at Montreal. 



A'ccording to Morch & Dall, the original type of Tritonium viridulum, 0. 

 Fabricius, as well as the De/rancia viridula of Moller, both of which are 

 founded on the same specimen in the Museum at Copenhagen, is a Bela like 

 B. exarata, and not an Admete. 



Family Turridce. 



Genus Bela, Leach. 



The nomenclature of the Belas of this region has long been in a state of 

 confusion, owing to the imperfect original descriptions and very inadequate 

 illustrations of the New En;>laud and Greenland species, with which most of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence forms are identical. In 1878, however, the Norwegian 

 species were accurately figured by G. O. Sars, and more recently Professor 

 Verrill and Miss Bush have made a special study of the North American 

 Belas, and have kindly examined and determined all the Canadian species 

 that the writer was able to send specimens of. In this list, therefore, the 

 names of nearly all the species are given on their authority. 



Bela nobilis (Moller). 



Defrancia nohilis, Moller (1842). 

 Bela nohilis, Packard (1867). 



A large living specimen dredged by the writer in 1871 on the north shore 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, off Egg Island, in 70-80 fathoms, has recently 

 been identified with this species by Professor Verrill. The specimen is very 

 nearly an inch in length. Packard, in 1867, had previously recorded the 

 occurrence of B. nobilis on the Labrador coast, but states that it " differs 

 from B. Americana and B. turricula (of which we would scarcely consider 

 it a variety) in its fewer and larger rugje, with less distinct revolving lines." 

 The specimens from off Grande Gr^ve, Gaspe Bay, that the writer referred 

 to B. nohilis in 1869, Professor Yerrill and Miss Bush think represent an at 

 present undescribed species. 



A considerable difference of opinion still exists among naturalists as to 

 the distinctness or otherwise of certain real or nominal species of the B. 

 turricula group. In his account of the Valorous Mollusca Jeffreys writes 

 as follows, in regard to B. turricula : — "The sculpture is extremely variable. 



