244 LUCINIDjE. 



digged much in nearly every bay." He suspected that 

 Loripes lacteus (single valves of which are exceedingly 

 plentiful near St. Peter's Port, Guernsey) must have been 

 mistaken for the present species. Var. 1. Many places, 

 in deep water. Var. 2. In shallow water, Guernsey and 

 Scalloway (J. G. J.) ; Bantry Bay (Norman). This 

 species occurs in the tertiary beds of the Clyde (Geikie) , 

 Belfast (Hyndman and Grainger), Sussex (Godwin- 

 Austen), and the Mammalian, Red, and Coralline Crag 

 (S. Wood). Abroad it ranges from Iceland (Steenstrup) 

 to Messina (Sars). Brocchi and Philippi enumerate it 

 as an Italian fossil. I have found it in the upper mio- 

 cene tertiaries of the South of France, as well as in the 

 Udde valla and Christiania beds. Gould describes it as 

 a Massachusetts shell, and Stimpson from the Boston 

 coast ; but the latter now denies that it is our species, 

 and distinguishes it by the greater size, by the ribs 

 being more distant and regular, and by the colour, which 

 Gould says is white : Stimpson has therefore named it 

 filosa. However, if the claim to distinction rests only on 

 these comparative characters, I do not see any reason 

 for separating the Atlantic and Transatlantic species. 



Montagu states that this shell is ' ' particularly abun- 

 dant at Falmouth, amongst the sand dredged from the 

 harbour for the purpose of manure; by which means 

 it is common in the arable fields about that place." I 

 hope geologists may not be misled, and consider it 

 fossil, if they find it in such situations. They need as 

 much caution as antiquaries in the exercise of their 

 pursuit^lthough they are not so liable to be wilfully 

 deceived. It may be worth while to fabricate coins, 

 flint knives, and similar relics of historic and prehistoric 

 times ; but fossil shells have no such marketable value, 

 they are not so easily forged or imitated, nor would even 



