among- whom maj- be mentioned Pictet, Cornuel and Blanfovd; as well as 

 D'Orbigny and Shar])e. Should the latter vieAV be adopted, the laws of 

 nomenclature require (as Blanford has pointed out) that D'Orbigny's 

 name should be changed, as it is preoccupied. It might have been a 

 fitting com^jliment to the Swiss naturalist who first called attention to 

 its distinctive failures, to have dedicated the species to him, but Oppel 

 has alread}' called a Nautilus from the Upper Tithonic beds at 

 Stramberg, N. Picttti. This being the case, the name N. Atlas is 

 proposed as a sul>stitute for that of K elegans, D'Orbigny. The 

 Queen Charlotte Island specimen may or may not belong to the same 

 species. 



A Nautilus collected b}- Mr. Eichardson, in 1874, from the Cretaceous 

 rocks of Sucia Island, which is in an excellent state of preservation, 

 (although a little distorted) bears a striking resemblance in many 

 respects to the type of N. Atlas. It is a much less globose shell than the 

 Q. C. Island specimen; its umbilicus is entirely closed, and the siphuncle 

 is situated a little on the outside of the centre of the septa. Eight 

 septa are visible externally in the space of rather more than half a 

 whorl ; the ribs on the inner, or nacreous layer of the test, are propor- 

 tionately broader than are those of the Q. C. Island shell, and they each 

 fn-m a wide but not angular sinus on the periphery. There is a distinct 

 though not very large excavation round the umbilical callus. Near the 

 aperture, the height of the whorl, outside of the emargination caused by 

 the encroachment of the preceding volution, is not much less than its 

 breadth. The dimensions are about as follows, biit no allowances have 

 been made for obvious distortion : — 



Greatest diameter, four inches and one line; width of apei'ture (which 

 is identical with the maximum of thickness) two inches and five lines ; 

 heiglit of do., in the centre, eighteen, lines. 



This fossil will be described more at length in another place, but 

 its pi'ominent characteristics are given in advance for the sake of com- 

 parison. The siphuncle of this shell seems to be placed rather nearer 

 to the centre of the whorl than is the case with W. Atlas. The Sucia 

 Island fossil is veiy nearly related to iV. Atlas, of which it is probably 

 only a variety ; the Q. C. Island specimen, on the other hand, may 

 prove to be nearer to N. pseudo-elegatis. 



The few Nautili of the section Radiati, which have yet been described 

 or quoted as occurring in the Cretaceous rocks of the United States, 

 present cviriously close affinities with European species. The apparent 

 s])ecific relations of the former ma}' be thus briefly expressed, though 



c 



