200 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



nodes (or disconnected varices) up the spire to the slender apex. Both the inner and outer lip of 

 this genus is denticulated or toothed. More than one hundred species have been found living in the 

 temperate and sub-tropical seas, ranging from low-water to fifty fathoms. 



The great Triton (T. tritonis) is the conch-shell blown by the Australian and Polynesian Islanders. 

 The use of turbinated or spiral shells as trumpets or horns, to sound an alarm with, appears to be 

 of most ancient date and cosmopolitan in extent. The practice is followed among the African 

 aborigines, the natives of the Eastern Archipelago, New Zealand and Japan. " The sound of the 

 trumpet or shell " (writes Ellis, in Polynesian Researches, vol. i., p. 283), " a species of Murex (Triton] 

 used by the priests in the temple, and also by the herald and others on board 

 their fleets, was more horrific than that of the drum. The largest shells 

 were usually selected for this purpose, and were sometimes above a foot 

 in length, and seven or eight inches in diameter at the mouth. In order 

 to facilitate the blowing of this trumpet they made a perforation, about 

 an inch in diameter, near the apex of the shell ; into this they inserted a 

 bamboo cane, about three feet in length, which was secured by binding it to 

 the shell with finely-braided cinet. The aperture was rendered air-tight by 

 cementing the outsides of it with a resinous gum from the bread-fruit tree. 

 These shells were blown when any procession marched to the temple, at the 

 inauguration of the king, during the worship at the temple, or when a tabu 

 or restriction was imposed in the name of the gods. We have sometimes 

 heard them blown. The sound is extremely loud, but the most monotonous 

 and dismal that is possible to imagine." Specimens of these shells may be 

 seen in the Shell Gallery, and also in the Ethnographical Room at the 

 British Museum, prepared for use as horns by the South Sea Islanders. 



The genus Ranella is an ovate-oblong compressed shell, having two rows 

 of continuous varices (or periodic mouths), one on each side, from the apex 

 down the spire to the mouth ; the canal is short and re-curved, and the 

 outer lip crenated. 



The species of Ranella, fifty in number, are mostly tropical ; the thicker and more rugose forms 

 are found in rocky situations, and on coral reefs ; the winged species, with smoother surfaces, are 

 from deep water. The animals are active, and crawl rapidly. (Adams.) They are chiefly from 

 India. 



" Sea Snails," says Dr. S. P. Woodward, " certainly take many seasons to attain their maturity, 

 even supposing them to grow twice a year. Dredging operations are usually only carried on in the 

 spring and summer months ; yet a large proportion of the mollusca taken are immature. Exilima 

 grows a whorl at a time, then thickens its lip and rests ; ultimately a straight line is found running 

 down one side of the shell, caused by the coincidence of those ' rests.' In Ranella the line of 

 ' rests ' is also coincident ; but as it only grows half a turn between each there are two rows down the 

 spire." 



Pyrula (from the diminutive of pyrus, a pear) is the name given to a genus of sub-tropical shells 

 known also as " Fig-shells." It has a fig-shaped or pear-shaped shell, with a short spire; the surface 

 of the shell in many species is ornamented with raised reticulated lines ; the outer lip of the shell is 

 thin, and the inner lip smooth ; the canal is long and open. It is nearly enveloped in the lobes 

 of the mantle which almost meet on the back of the shell. The animal has a broad truncated foot, 

 but no operculum. The Fig-shell has a wide sub-tropical range. Forty species are described living at 

 from seventeen to thirty-five fathoms' depth. 



Specimens of Pyrula perversa and Pyrula spirata have been found in grave-mounds and 

 sepulchral depositories in different parts of Western Canada, illustrating the extent of traffic carried 

 on between the north and south in ages prior to the displacement of the red man by the European. 



FAMILY V. CONID^E. 



The great family of the Cones is characterised by the remarkably persistent form of their shells, 

 being an inverted cone, with a very long and narrow mouth, and a sharp edged outer lip. Clothed in 



TRITON VARIEGATUM. 



