133 



DENTALroM Nanaimoense, Meek. 



Plate 16, figures 9, 9a, and 9 A. 



Dentaliam Nanaimoense. Meek. — Trans. Alb. Inst., Vol. IV., (1857) p. 44. 



" Koomooksense, Meek. — Bui. Geol. & Geogr. Surv. of Terr., Vol. 



II., No. 4, p. 364, pi. 3, fig. 6. 



?=Dentalium. straviineum, Gabb. — Pal. Cal., Vol. I., p. 139, pi. 21, fig. 101. 



Compare Dentalium gracile, Hail & Meek. — See Meek's Rep. Inv. Cret. and Tert. Foss. 



of the U. Miss. Country, p. 266, pi. 18, 

 • figs. 13, a, 6, c, d. 



Also, Dentalium decussatum, Sowerby. — Especially as described and figured by 



J. Starkie Gardner in the Feb. No. 

 1878, of the Quart. Joum. of the 

 Geol. 8oc. of London. 



Dennian Island, .soutii-we.st side, in Division B. Two miles and a- 

 quarter up the Nanaimo River, Y. I. ; also Admiralty Island and the 

 Sucia Islands, in Division K., J. Richardson, 1872-75. 



Dentalium Nanaimoense was described from a fragment of the anterior 

 portion of the shell not much more than half an inch in length, and the 

 species has since been found to taper much more gradually than it is 

 represented as doing in Meek's partly restored figure. Although none of 

 the specimens collected by Mr, Richardson are perfect, especially at the 

 larger end, yet some of them are more than an inch long, and the relative 

 width of fragments of both extremities seems to indicate that the shell 

 attained to a length of two inches or more. It is slightly curved and 

 very slender, the apical portion in particular being extremely narrow 

 and attenuated. The thickness of the anterior end of the largest 

 individual yet obtained is not much more than two lines. In a specimen 

 fom-teen lines long, from the Sucia Islands, the apex, which is imperfect, 

 is about a quarter of a line in diameter, and the anterior end rather 

 more than a line, but others are more robust. The longitudinal ribs 

 commence at the apex and extend to within a very short distance of 

 the mouth. In the original of figure 2b, on plate 16, there are about 

 sixteen costa; near the smaller end, and at the opposite extremity they 

 have increased to double that number by the intercalation of a shorter 

 rib between each pair of the longer ones. The test is moderately thick, 

 and the transverse strise are extremely faint and disposed at rather 

 iiTegular intervals. 



iMr. Meek says, '' This species is nearly related to D. gracile, of Hall 

 and Meek, from which it may be distinguished by its thinner shell and 



