35 



COXES, YOLrTES, MITEES, AXD OLI^^ES. 



These are names given by collectors to certain classes of 

 univalve shells distinguished by peculiarities of formation, more 

 or less distinct. AVe shall describe two or three of each, that 

 our readers may have some idea of the meaning of the terms 

 which arc often used by those who speak or write on con- 

 chology. 



The family of Cones, called Com'da;, is an extensive one, 

 considerably above two hundred sjDCcies having been discovered. 

 Man}^ of them are very beautiful both in shape and colour, 

 so that they are highly valued by collectors; they are prin- 

 cipally found in the southern and tropical seas, upon sandy 

 bottoms, at depths varying from a few feet to seventeen fathoms. 

 The shells are generail}^ thick and solid, rolled up, as it were, 

 into a conical form; the most familiar illustration that can be 

 given of this form is a sugar-loaf, which, all these shells more 

 or less resemble in c-eneral outline, as thus — 



Cones are either plain or coronated, that is, crowned, having 

 rows of projections round the top of the shell, like the second 

 of the above figures; and this forms a mark of division into 

 two classes, although these classes often run, as it were, one 

 into the other; some plain cones having slight irregularities of 

 surface, and some crowned ones being very nearly plain. 



The Common, or Ordinary Cone, {('onus generalisj Plate Y, 

 Eig. 1, is an elegantly- shaped and beautifully-marked shell, 

 having much the appearance of being carved out of some rare 

 kind of marble. The Lettered Cone, {Conus littoralis,) Fig. 2, 

 appears to be scribbled over w^ith Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic 

 characters, and almost every species has something peculiar 

 in its markings; clouds and veins, and dots, and stripes, and 

 bands, of every conceivable shape and mode of arrangement. 



