68 MYID,^. 



Red and Coralline Crag (Wood) . It is dug up in such 

 quantities on a farm near the Crinan Canal^ as to 

 be carted and used for manure. " At Lochgilphead the 

 syphon is preserved in the clay filling the interior 

 of the shell ^^ (Geikie) . I have also seen specimens in 

 situ at Tufvoe near Gottenburg, about 200 feet above 

 the present level of the sea. In clay near Palermo 

 (Philippi) ; glacial deposits throughout Scandinavia; 

 "aldre leer^^ at Christiania^ 90-470 feet (Sars) ; 

 Hudson's Bay (Drexler) ; Canada (Bell). Its foreign 

 range in a living state extends from Spitzbergen 

 (Philips) and Kamtschatka (Steller), to the Black Sea 

 (Siemascho), but probably subfossil in the last locality, 

 as Middendorff believed ; Misquer in lower Brittany 

 (Cailliaud) ; Quiberon (Hemon) ; Bay of Biscay (Au- 

 capitaine) , in the old world : from Greenland (Scoresby 

 and others) to Massachusetts (Gould) , and Vancouver's 

 Island (P. Carpenter) in the new world. It is possible 

 that M. truncata may serve as a link in the chain of 

 evidence to support the hypothesis of Professor Unger, 

 that Europe was once connected with North America 

 through the space now represented by the Atlantic 

 Isles. Olivi enumerated it as an Adiiatic species, and 

 even gave a short description which leaves no doubt of 

 its being our shell ; but he may not have had recent 

 specimens. The same remark applies also to Brocchi's 

 statement, repeated by Risso, that it is found on the 

 shores of Tuscany. The M. truncata of Chiereghini 

 from the Adi'iatic has been identified by Nardo with 

 Thracia papyracea. On the Scandinavian coast its ba- 

 thymetrical limits lie between low-water mark and 100 f. 

 Its vernacular name is " smyrsling ^' in Iceland, 

 " smirslingur '^ in the Faroe Isles, and "smirslin" in 

 Shetland and the west of Scotland, aU these being evi- 



