﻿p. Thomson.— yl Rock Pool and its Contents. 219 



tinged with green, four times the size of the opercuhim, tlie form of whicli it 

 resembles in general outline ; lip thin ; throat nacreous ; operculum shelly, ear- 

 shaped, closely resembling that of /. Gookii. The base appears to lack the 

 oi-namentation peculiar to this last-named shell, though the -whorls show traces 

 of the wavy corrugation. The principal distinguishing marks between the two 

 would seem to be the difference in the form of the aperture, and the far more 

 marked tendency toward the conical form presented by the contour of the 

 present specimen. 



This shell, the only example at present obtained,* was discovered at low 

 water at the cliifs at Nelson, JST.Z., by the late Mr. E. H. Davis, of the New 

 Zealand Geological Survey. - 



Art. XXXVIII. — -A Rock Pool and its Contents. By P. Thomson. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, ISth April, 1871.] 



Prom some remarks made by our vice-president about the wants in our local 

 museum, and the difficulty of getting them supplied, I am inclined to think 

 that the best means of doing so, as well as an excellent means of making 

 our members practically acquainted with out-door science generally, would 

 be by the establishment, in connection with our Institute, of a Pield Natu- 

 ralists' Society. Such associations are not unfrequent in the home country, 

 and have proved of considerable benefit, not only to the districts in which 

 they labour, but to the members themselves. They generally meet once or 

 twice a month during the summer, and fix upon some locality over which to 

 extend their researches, the scene of the next excursion being generally fixed 

 before the breaking up of the last one. Du.ring these excursions each member 

 is free to follow his or her peculiar branch of study. While one may push 

 his way into a thicket to look for some fern or other plant, another may have 

 come provided with net and other apparatus for catching moths, butterflies, 

 or other insects. Another, again, may have foiind the outcrop of some rock, 

 and, with hammer in hand, will go chipping off specimens ; while another 

 still may explore the thick bushes for birds' nests, etc. It is rather late in 

 the season now for initiating such a society as that proposed ; but even yet a 

 good deal may be done. At all events the society may be organised, so that 

 work might be begun at any time. There are numerous localities round about 

 Dunedin which abound with interesting objects of every kind. I need only 

 mention the shores of the harbour, the ocean beach, the valley of the Leith, 

 the Pine Hill bush, PlagstafF, etc., to show that a Naturalists' Society has 



* Another specimen has since been obtained in the same locality. — Ed. 



