ON MOLLTT?CA OF THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. 519 



assigned by the older writers may be found erroneously placed. The follow- 

 ing- are probably from the West coast of North America, with the synonymy 

 as understood by Dr. Gray : 



Page. No. 



229 8. Murex foliatm, Gmel. 3329. = M. purpura data, Chemn. x. pi. 169. f. 1538- 

 9; Wood's Cat. f. 13. Purpura foliata, Mart. U. C. ii. 66. Hub. N. 

 Zealand, Humphreys. King George's Sound, Martyn. ["=3f. triptervs, 

 Kien. : non M tripterus, Bora et auct. =trialatus, Kien." teste Hani.] 

 229 9. Murex lyratus, G nel. 3531.=3f. glomus cereus, Chem. x. pi. 169. f. 1634. 

 Buccinum lyratum, Martyn, U. C. ii. f. 43. Hob. N. Zealand, King 

 George's Bay, Martyn. 



233 43. Purpura lamellosa,= Buccinum I, Gmel., Wood's Cat. f. 6Q.=Btic. pli- 

 calwn, Martyn, U. C. ii. f. 41. =Buc. compositum, Chemn. x. 179, vign. 

 21. f. A, ft. = Buc. crispatum, Chemn. xi. 84, pi. 187. f. 1802-3. Murex 

 cr., Lam. 174. Hob. N. Zealand, King George's Sound, Chemn., Mar- 

 tyn. Coast of Columbia. 



237 *71. Ziziphinus canaliculatus. Troclius c.. Martyn, U. C. pi. 32,= Tr. doliarius, 

 Chemn. x. f. 1579-80 ; Wood's Cat. f. 96. Hab. N. Zealand, Martyn. 

 California, Capt. Belcher, R.N. 



*72. ZizipJnnus annulatus. Trochus a., Martyn, U. C. pi. 33. = T. virgineus, 

 Chemn. x. f. 1581-2 j Wood's Cat. f. 98. = Tr. ccelatus, ., Gmel. Hab. 

 N. Zealand, Martyn. California, Capt. Belcher. 

 243 113. Bulla Quoyii, Gray, n. s.=J?. striata, Q. & G., Voy. Astr. ii. 354, pi. 26. 



f. 8, 9, non Lam. Hab. N. Zealand, Quoy, Stanger. 



But the first authentic information on the molluscs of the North-western 

 coast is given in the ' Voyage Round the World, but more particularly to the 

 N.W. Coast of America,' by Capt. George Dixon, London, 1789: to which is 

 added a Natural History Appendix. 

 Page 355, fig. 2. Solen patulus *. Cook's River. [= Machara Nuttalli, Conr.] 



In the ' Conchology, or Natural History of Shells/ by George Perry, Lon- 

 don, 1811, a work of no little pretension, yet singularly inaccurate, are figured 

 the following species, but without authorities for the assigned localities : 



* As this extract is probably the first description on record of molluscs from the Pacific 

 shores of N. America, by the original collector, and as the book is rarely to be met with, 

 it may be interesting to quote the passage : 



" At the mouth of Cook's River [lat. 59-61] are many species of shell-fish, most of 

 them, I presume, nondescript ; and of all which I should have endeavoured to have got 

 specimens, had business permitted. Among the bivalves we noticed some of a large spe- 

 cies, of the Cardium or cockle-genus \_Cardium corbis, Mart.], half-a-dozen of which would 

 have afforded a good supper for one person ; but, for a repast of that kind, our men pre- 

 ferred a large species of the Solen genus, which they got in quantity, and were easily dis- 

 covered by their spouting up the water as the men walked over the sands where they in- 

 habited : as I suppose it to be a new kind, I have given a figure of it in the annexed plate 

 [Solen patulus ; accurate external and internal views, size of life]. 'Tis a thin brittle shell, 

 smooth within and without : one valve is furnished with two front and two lateral teeth 

 [the ' laterals ' are the nymphse for the ligament] ; the other has one front and one side 

 tooth, which slip in between the others in the opposite valve : from the teeth, in each valve, 

 proceeds a strong rib, which extends to above halfway across the shell, and gradually loses 

 itself towards the edge, which is smooth and sharp. The colour of the outside is white, 

 circularly, but faintly, zoned with violet, and is covered with a smooth yellowish-brown 

 epidermis, which appears darkest where the zones are : the inside is white, slightly zoned, 

 and tinted with violet and pink. The animal, as in all species of this genus, protrudes 

 beyond the ends of the shell very much, and is exceeding good food. A fine specimen of 

 this kind is in the Collection of John Swainson, Esq., of the Custom House, London. We 

 saw also, on this coast, a kind of muscle, in colour and shape much like the common eat- 

 able muscle of Europe, but differed in being circularly wrinkled, and a great deal larger 

 \_Mytilus Californianus, Conr.]. One valve I saw at Queen Charlotte's Islands measured 

 above nine inches and a half in length. With pieces of these muscles, sharpened to an ex- 

 quisite edge and point, the Indians head their harpoons and other instruments for fishing 

 They fasten them on with a kind of resinous substance." Dixon s 'Voyage.' 



5 



