iii I N T R O D U C T I O N. 



number of the Shells here exhibited, but alfo to approve, and very generoufly 

 to pron^.ote the undertaking, for which fingul&r favors I can never be fuffi- 

 ciently thankful. 



The approb.nion of two fuch very eminent perfonages, I flatter myftlf, 

 cannot fail to enfure a favourable reception of my endeavours from every curi- 

 ous admirer of the wonderful works of our benificent CREATOR ! efpccially 

 thofe of our own ifland, as fo large a number of Shells, heretofore unknown, 

 are hereby added to the Britifli Conchology, fu/Bcient to fliew the path is now 

 laid open, and made eafy for ftill greater difcoveries to be made by inquifitive 

 naturalifts, in the different parts of the kingdom. What a number of minute 

 Shells, equal to a moiety of the engraved Englifh feries, hath now been dif- 

 covered in fmall quantities of Sand from an inconfiderablepart of our coafls ! 

 Surely this is encouragement, and will be an inducement to Gentlemen of a 

 philofophical turn of mind occafionally to employ their leifure hours in fimilar 

 refcarches ; nor can they fail of making difcoveries that will amj)ly repay 

 them for their inquiries. Indeed it is fomewhat furprifnig, that the Authors 

 of our own country, who have fo advantageoufly applied the Microfcope to 

 a variety of ohjeds of the animal kingdom, (hould totally have ncgledtc I 

 to examine the fliores of our own leas, crouded as they are with objefts, 

 equally worthy their attention, and yet it has not been for want of hints. 

 The account of the minute and rare Shells difcovered at Rimino, on the coafl 

 of the Adriatic Sea, was publiflied by Plancus in the year 1739 j and Mr. 

 Eaker's obfervation, in page 244, of his treatife on the Microfcope, publifhed 

 in the year t 742, deferved more attention than has been paid to it. Shell 

 (il"h, fays he, " Are ohjefts that have as yet been very flightly examined by 

 " the Microfcope, and therefore the ferious inquirer into Nature's fecret 

 " operations may here be certain of difcovering beauties, which at prefent 

 " he can have no conception of." 



Lut thus it is. Nature opens her rich and inexhauftible treafures flowly and 

 <^raduallv to the inquifitive mind of man. The faft is, different obfervers 



have 



