Conchology. 273 



world, for the beauty and variety of the patella or limpet found 

 there. 



America affords very many elegant shells, but neither in so great 

 abundance nor beauty as the shores of Asia. Panama is famous 

 for the cylinders or rhombi, and we have besides, from the same 

 place, some good porcelains, and very fine species of dolium^ or 

 Concha globosa, called from this place, the Panama purple shell. 

 One of the most beautiful of the cylinders, is also known among 

 naturalists, under the name of the Panama shell. About Brazil, 

 end in the gulf of Mexico, there are found murices and dolia of 

 extreme beauty; and also a great variety of porcelains, purpuras, 

 pectens, neritae, bucardiae, or heart shells, and elegant limpets. 

 The island of Cayenna affords one of the most beautiful of the 

 buccinum kind, and the. Midas ear is found principally about this 

 place. Jamaica and the island of Barbadoes have their shores 

 covered with porcelain, chamse, and buccina; and at St. Domin- 

 go, there are found almost all the same species of shells that we 

 have from the East Indies; only they are less beautiful, and the 

 colors more pale and dead. The pearl oyster is found also on this 

 coast, but smaller than in the Persian Gulf. At Martinico there 

 are found in general, the same shells as at St. Domingo, but yet 

 less beautiful. About Canada are found the violet chamse; and the 

 lakes of that country abound with muscles of very elegant pale 

 blue and pale red colors. Some species of these are remarkably 

 light and thin; others are very thick and heavy. The Great Bank 

 of Newfoundland is very barren in shells; the principal kind found 

 there, are muscles of several species, some of which are of con- 

 siderable beauty. About Carthagena there are many mother of 

 pearl shells, but they are not of so brilliant colors as those of the 

 iPersian gulf. The island of Magellan, at the southern point of 

 America, furnishes us with a very remarkable species of muscle call- 

 ed by its name; and several very elegant species of Umpets found 

 there, particularly the pyramidal. 



In Africa, on the coast of Guinea, there is a prodigious quanti- 

 ty of that small species of porcelain which is used there as mon- 

 ey; and there is another species of porcelain on the same coast 

 which is all over white ; the women make bracelets of the latter, and 

 the people of the Levant adorn their hair with them. The coast of 

 Zanguebar is very rich in shells; we find there a vast variety of the 

 large porcelains, many of them of great beauty, and the JVux maris^ 

 or sea nut, is very frequent there. Beside these and many other 

 shells, there are found on this coast all the species of nautili, many 

 of which are very beautiful. The Canary Isles abound with a vast 

 variety of the murices, and some other good shells j and we have 

 35 



