NEPTTJNEA. 115 



large as those forming another cluster, although in both cases 

 the fry are in the same state of maturity. When they are dry^ 

 the upper or convex side shrivels, and is wrinkled or pitted ; the 

 under or flat side (which by contraction becomes concave) is of 

 a silky texture, and divided across by a few lines ; the opening 

 is a wide slit, lying just under the top which makes a narrow 

 flap. 



" Before leaving the capsule the fry are perfectly formed, with 

 conspicuous tentacles, eyes, and operculum ; their shell has two 

 whorls, the first being smooth, and the other showing a few 

 slight incipient striae. Each capsule produces only from two to 

 four fry. The latter end of winter appears to be the spawning- 

 season ; on the 26th of January, 1861, I examined fresh capsules 

 which contained merely eggs immersed in a glairy liquid ; and 

 seven days afterwards I found in the other capsules full-sized 

 and living young whelks. 



" The sculpture of tire adult shell differs according to the 

 locality and nature of the ground ; sometimes it is coarse, and at 

 other times scarcely perceptible. Specimens from Kiel Bay are 

 stunted and depauperated, owing probably to the admixture of 

 fresh water from the Baltic. In Shetland and at Berwick the 

 fishermen make an elegant lamp of the shell, suspending it hori- 

 zontally, mouth upwards, by a string round the middle, from a 

 nail in the wall ; the cavity contains oil, and the canal a wick 

 (See Vol. II, PI. 2, fig. 13). Now and then giants are seen, f or 

 8 inches long. The body-whorl of the female is larger than that 

 of the male. Chemnitz knew the reversed form as a Crag fossil 

 of Harwich ; and he deplored in moving terms the indolence and 

 apathy of naturalists in not procuring live specimens of this 

 ' most delicate monster.' It is still very rare. Not only the 

 spire of the shell, but also the curve of the operculum is reversed. 

 I am not aware of any explanation of the phenomenon having 

 been offered on physiological grounds." 



Mr. Crosse considers N. contraria, Linn. (t. 50, f. 291, 292), a 

 good species, and not a reversed antiqua, because it is so abun- 

 dantly found at Vigo, a locality more southern than any for the 

 normal antiqua, and Weinkauff also, remarking upon the abun. 

 dance of contraria in the Mediterranean and the absence of 

 antiqua, comes to the same conclusion. 



