200 WEST COAST SHELLS 



comes from considerable depths off the coast of 

 Alaska. It is bluish white in color, but it has an 

 olive-brown epidermis. 



Cczcum californicum^ Dall, the California Tube- 

 shell, is the next species to be considered. This 

 singular species differs much from any that have 

 gone before. The shell is a little white tube, 3 mm. 

 long, slightly curved, and showing under the micro- 

 scope that it is made up of many small rings. 



C(^cum crebricinctu?n^ Cpr., the Close-ringed Tube- 

 shell, resembles the last species, but it is nearly twice 

 as large, and it is marked with exceedingly fine 

 rings, sometimes quite indistinct. Both of these 

 species are found mostly in the south. 



Vermetus Utuella^ Morch, is the Crooked Worm- 

 shell. This singular mollusk has an irregular, tubu- 

 lar shell, which becomes attached to the side of a 

 stone and twists itself into an ill-shaped, flattened 

 cone. Several specimens are frequently found near 

 one another. The shell is often angular and rough- 

 ened; the aperture is circular, and is only one-eighth 

 of an inch or less in diameter. The color, as in that 

 of the following species, is a dingy white. 



Vermetus squamigerus^ Cpr., the Scaly Worm- 

 shell, is a very much larger creature. It is extremely 

 irregular, many specimens frequently growing to- 

 gether upon a rock, and looking like a heap of con- 

 torted snakes. The shell is marked throughout its 

 length by transverse, scaly ridges. The aperture is 

 circular, one-fourth of an inch across. If the tube 

 were straightened it would measure some four inches 

 or more in length. The operculum is circular. I once 



