92 Gigantic Species of Terebratula 



broad expansion of the outer lip, and emarginate base, with- 

 out coloured markings." 



It appears, therefore, that the statement upon which M. 

 Deshayes depended amounts to this : — that Mr. Sowerby had 

 seen dravimgs of shells said to be in the possession of Mr. Hall 

 and Mr. Jennings, resembling in some respects Vol uta Lamberti. 



The fact mentioned by Mr. Sowerby of the correspondence 

 in colour between the crag volete and the drawings to which he 

 refers is a suspicious circumstance, because the deep ochreous 

 tint exhibited by the specimen figured in the Mineral Con- 

 chology is a character more or less common to all the fossils 

 found in the red crag, depending, in all probability, upon the 

 presence of hydrated oxide of iron. It is, however, satisfac- 

 tory to have learned thus much, that M. Deshayes has not 

 personally examined any recent Voluta Lamberti, and it now 

 only remains for him to name the individuals whom he ex- 

 plicitly states to have really done so, and to learn of them the 

 collection or collections in London in which these rarities 

 are deposited. 



I anticipated some difficulties in instituting the present en- 

 quiry, which I was led to enter upon from the consideration 

 that a solution of the obscure points connected with the his- 

 tory of this shell would be of importance to those who are 

 interested in our own tertiary deposits ; and, perhaps, not less 

 so to those engaged in the study of recent conchology. 

 Should I be fortunate enough to obtain any more facts relating 

 to the subject, I shall not fail to take the earliest opportunity 

 of making them public. 



The gigantic species of Terebratula represented at fig. 13. 

 forms one of the numerous additions to fossil conchology 

 which have resulted from the examination of those tertiary 

 beds which are interposed between the crag and London clay 

 in some parts of Suffolk. This shell cannot, it is true, be 

 looked upon as an entirely new fossil, since Sowerby has, in the 

 Mineral Concliology, figured and described several specimens, 

 which are undoubtedly young individuals of the same species. 

 The figures now given of this singular fossil are drawn by Mr. 

 James de C. Sowerby, from specimens in my own collection ; 

 and, although the most perfect, are by no means the largest 

 which I have seen ; having occasionally met with fragments 

 indicating a length of five or six inches, a size considerably 

 exceeding that of any known fossil or recent Terebratula. 

 Sowerby only remarks of this shell that it is a very abun- 

 dant crag fossil, and that the valves are never found joined, 

 and always much worn.* In the red crag, whence Sower- 

 * Sowerby's Min. Con., vol. vi. p. 148. 



