64 Observations on a Shelly &fc. 



The earliest description which I find in the books to 

 which w^e have access, is in the work of Buonanni, entitled 

 "Recreazione del' Occhio et della Mente," in which there 

 is also a figure, intended doubtless for this shell. His de- 

 scription is as follows : ^^ Trocho che per antonomasia si puo 

 dir Magno e Dojfpioj perche si trova grande quanto e la 

 figura cpi posta ; Doppio poi, perche sembra essere di 

 due turbine composto ; e solcato con ottima divisione da 

 capo a piede, e dove le volute si congiungono raggiorasi 

 un cordone, che gratissamente sporgendo in fuori, le dis- 

 tmgue." In a Latin translation of the same, work, which 

 was published a few years later, under the title of " Mu- 

 saeum Kircherianum etc." the same figure appears again, 

 with the following description : " Antonoraastice Magnus 

 et Duplex appellandus. Superat enim cseteros magnitudi- 

 ne, et ex duplici turbine in basi simul coeuntibus, videtur 

 compositus,- Pulchro striarum trans versarum dispositione 

 sulcata. Qua spirarum turbines coaptuntur, rotundae 

 striae circumferunter, alterum ab altero discriminantes." 



These are evidently descriptions of the same shell, with 

 only such slight differences as would naturally occur in 

 describing the same object at different times, with this 

 exception, that in the Italian description, the shell is said 

 to be called great because it is of the size of the figure 

 annexed, which is only four or five inches long ; while in 

 the Latin description, it is stated to exceed all others in 

 magnitude, and hence to be called emphatically great. 

 This discrepancy was doubtless accidental, and may be 

 explained on the supposition that the author intended in 

 the first instance to have annexed a figure of the natural 

 size, or to have accompanied it with a scale, or some other 

 mode of indicating it. This oversight is worth notice, as 

 the correction of the error, and the indication of the* great 

 size of the shelly have been overlooked, while the length 



