198 



Bela decussata (Couthouy). 



Pleurotoma decussata, Couthouy (1839). 

 Bela decussata, Gould (1870) ; et auct. 



Grand Manan (Stimpson). " Martha's Vineyard to Labrador. In the 

 Bay of Fundy, where it is not rare, I have taken it in 20 to 100 fathoms, 

 in 1868, 1870 and 1872. It has been dredged by the U.S. Fish Commission 

 parties in Halifax harbour and off Nova Scotia, 15 to 59 fathoms, 1887 " 

 (Verrill, 1882; op.cit.,p. 488). Probably common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 though the Gaspe Bay specimens that were referred to B. decussata many years 

 ago, by the writer, are the since described B. incisula. North shore of the 

 Strait of Belle Isle at "Forteau Bay, 20 fathoms; L'Anse au Loup, 10 fathoms. 

 One unusually large dead specimen at Henley Harbour," Labrador, " 10 to 15 

 fathoms," Stearns' expedition (Miss Bush). 



Bela incisula, Verrill. 



1882. Trans. Conn. Acad. Arts and Sc, vol. v., p. 4C1. 



Apparently the commonest of the smaller Belas in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence. It had previously been identified by Packard and the writer with 

 B. decussata, on account of its close correspondence with Gould's description 

 and figure (185) of Pleurotoma decussata in the first edition of the "Inverte- 

 brata of Massachusetts." Tryon, too, in his monograph of the Pleuroto 

 mida?, published in 1884, in the sixth volume of his Manual of Conchology, 

 says that B. incisula appears to him to be " no more than a stunted shoul- 

 dered variety " (of B. decussata) " with straight ribs, approaching B. Kobelti." 



Verrill says that he has dredged B. incisula at Eastport Harbour and 

 the Bay of Fundy, at many localities, in 5 to 110 fathoms, in 1864-72 ; at 

 Halifax Harbour, in 16 to 21 fathoms, and off Nova Scotia, in 42 fathoms, 

 in 1877. The writer has dredged it in Northumberland Strait, off Shediac, 

 N.B., in 1873 ; off Grande Greve, Gaspe Bay, in 1867 and 1869 ; and else- 

 where in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1871-73. Verrill states that it was 

 sent to him, as from Labrador, mixed with B. exarata (=B. concinmda) by 

 Packard ; and Miss Bush records it as having been taken at four localities 

 on the Labrador coast by the Stearns expedition in 1882. 



It may be that the shells referred to B. Trevelyana by Sir J. W. Dawson, 

 on page 250 of the " Canadian Ice Age," are all B. incisula, in which case 

 the latter has also been found (living) at Little M^tis, Riviere du Loup, 

 and Murray Bay ; and (fossil) in the Leda clay of Riviere du Loup and 

 Labrador. 



