SB On the CJiaracters of Astele. 



before stated, being 33"52 for the same year. The same 

 diversity is known to exist in all countries; for while Hobart 

 Town agrees pretty well with London, there are some parts 

 of Lancashire in which the fall of rain is as great as at the 

 Hampshire Hills and the north west of Tasmania. — The notes 

 and remarks in the last column speak for themselves, and 

 require no comment. 



IV. — On the Characters of Astele, a New Division in the 

 Family of Trochinm, or Trochiform Shells; together 

 with the Description of another Species of the same 

 Family. By William Swainson, Esq., F.E.S., &c. 

 {Bead 8th March, 1854.] 



The more we become acquainted with the innumerable 

 variations under which animal and vegetable life present 

 themselves, the more do we discover the beauty of that 

 portion of the plan of creation by which one form is con- 

 nected to another, so that by following the chain of affinity, 

 objects the most dissimilar are insensibly connected by in- 

 termediate forms, and these will often blend the peculiarities 

 of each so much, that, like the seasons of the year, it 

 becomes nearly impossible to define where one terminates 

 and the other begins. 



This gradation in the scale of nature is too well known 

 abstractedly, even to the unscientific, to be enlarged upon in 

 this place. It is the basis of all true science and of all 

 natural classification ; and, therefore, every fresh instance of 

 its existence claims the greatest attention from those natu- 



