Mr. A. Adams on new Mollusca from China and Japan. 299 



of Mollusca new to science, which he proposed to name Margarita 

 elegantula, Aelis JFalleri, and Nassa 1 Halia'eti, besides twelve other 

 species which were new to the British Isles. Of these last, ten are 

 Scandinavian, one is Mediterranean, and the other had hitherto 

 been known only as a Crag fossil. He reserved the description and 

 particulars of these species for a work on British Conch ology which 

 he had undertaken. He ascertained that the Gulf Stream never 

 impinges on any part of the coast which he had examined, although 

 the climate was temperate. 



The author noticed the occurrence at considerable depths (nearly 

 80 fathoms) of living Mollusca which usually inhabit the shore or 

 very shallow water, viz. Lamellai'ia perspicua, Nassa incrassata, 

 and Cyprcea europaea, all of them being widely diffused species, — 

 thus apparently illustrating the view entertained by the late Professor 

 Edward Forbes, that those species which have the widest horizontal 

 range have the greatest vertical depth. Judging, however, from the 

 great depth at which he found the fossil shells of some Mollusca 

 (e. g. Pecten Islandicus and Mya tmncata var. Uddevallensis) which 

 inhabit much shallower water in the Arctic zone, the author is dis- 

 posed to believe that the bed of this part of our Northern Sea has 

 sunk since the so-called " glacial " epoch, and that this circumstance 

 may possibly account for the above-mentioned occurrence of sub- 

 littoral species at such depths. 



With respect to the comparative size of those Mollusca which 

 are common to the seas of the North as well as of the South of 

 Europe, the author referred to an observation made by Mr. Salter, 

 in a recent number of the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological So- 

 ciety,' that some fossil shells which Mr. Lamont had brought from 

 Spitzbergen were larger than those of the corresponding species in 

 our own mountain limestone ; and he remarked that the same rule 

 appears to apply also to marine plants, for he never saw such 

 gigantic fronds of the Laminaria saccharina, which fringes all our 

 coast-line, as he did in the voes of North Zetland. 



The author concluded by paying a just tribute of respect to the 

 labours of Professors Sars and Loven, Malm, Morch, Asbjornsen, and 

 other Scandinavian naturalists, who were investigating the Mollusca 

 of the Northern seas with a zeal and accuracy worthy of our emula- 

 tion. 



XXXIII. — On some new Genera and Species of Mollusca from 

 the North of China and Japan. By Arthur Adams, F.L.S. &c. 



Genus Onoba, H. & A. Adams. 



Onoba subulina, A. Adams. 



O. testa ovato-subulata, alba, rimata, tenui, opaca ; spira products 

 apice obtuso ; anfractibus A\, convexiusculis, transversim striatis, 

 striis creberrimis, suturis obliquis impressis ; apertura oblongo- 



