204 HALF AN HOUR WITH SHELL-FISH. 



name. It is a very elegantly formed shell, and often 

 kept for its shape. Occasionally, but rarely, speci- 

 mens are found having the whorls turned the wron'g 

 way. This is a freak not limited to the Fusus, but 

 met with rarely in all univalve shells. What is 

 very singular, however, is that the earliest forms of 

 the " Eed Whelk," which occurs abundantly in the 

 Suffolk Crag deposits in a fossil state, had all this ' 

 sinistral or wrong twist, and hence they go by the 

 name of Fusus contrarius. Space does not permit 

 us to dwell at further length on our native univalves, 

 but those who wish to enter on their study, as well 

 as that of the bivalves, cannot do better than get the 

 exhaustive work of Mr. Gwyn Jeffrys on British 

 conchology, where every species known to inhabit 

 English seas is fully described, both anatomically 

 and conchologically. 



