PREFACE 



A BOOK containing a sufficient number of figures to 

 assist conchologists in the determination of the shells they 

 may occasionally acquire, has long been a desideratum. 



We have, it is true, the extensive v\rork of Martini and 

 Chemnitz, the more confined publications of Knorr, of 

 Gaultieri, of Rugenfuss, Lister, Rumphius, Petiver, and 

 others ; but in no instance, except the first-mentioned, has 

 any attempt been made to include a figure of every species. 

 The great expense attending such publications, and the 

 want of sufficient encouragement in purchasers, has hi- 

 therto operated to prevent the accomplishment of so desi- 

 rable an undertaking. It has therefore been the endeavour 

 of the Author, in the absence of larger and more costly 

 publications, to supply their place by a work which will 

 incorporate in one volume figures of all the known shells, 

 reduced indeed to a small size, but with a degree of accu- 

 racy that it is hoped, will not only enable the conchologist 

 to fix upon any particular species he may wish to define, 



