126 PLIOCENE MOLLUSCA. 



Genus UROSALPINX, Simpson, 1865. 

 Urosalpinx cinereus (Say). Plate XII, figs. I-j — 17. 



1821. Fusus cinereiis. Say, Jourii. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliilad., vol. ii, p. 236. 



1830. Burxinum plicosum, Menlce, Syn. Meth. Moll., ed. 2, p. 59. 



1841-70. Buccinum cinereum, Goiild, Rep. Iiiv. Mass., ed. 1, p. 303, fig. 213, 1841 ; ed. 2, p. 370, 



fig. 637, 1870. 

 1881. Fusus cinereus, Tryon and Pilsbry, Man. Conch., vol. iii, p. 6S, pi. xxxvii, fig. 139. 

 1887. Urosalpinx cinereus, Morch and Poulsen, MS. list and plates in Geological Museum, Copeu- 



liageu, no. 5, pi. i, fig. 9 (uupublisUed). 



Specific Characters. — Shell oblong, fusiform, solid; whorls 5 or (J, convex, 

 compressed below the suture; ornamented by about 10 longitudinal costse, and by 

 fine, distinct and wavy spiral lines ; mouth oval, ending in a short canal ; outer 

 lip grooved inside by the spiral lines ; pillar covered by enamel which rises up by 

 the side of a small umbilical depression. 



Dimensions. — L. 20 — 28 mm. B. 10 — 15 mm. 



Distribution.— ^Becent : New England coast. 



Fossil : Waltonian Crag : Little Oakley. 



Pliocene deposits : Iceland. 



Beniarks. — Among the fossils from the Crag of Iceland in the Copenhagen 

 Museum there are some which were identified by Morch with the New England 

 shell U. cinereus. Although differing somewhat from the Recent form in size and 

 sculpture, I do not know anything to which they can be more conveniently 

 referred. I have two specimens from Oakley which seem to be the same, 

 one of them being here figured, together with another from the Iceland Crag 

 and a Recent shell from Maine that Dr. Shinier has kindly sent me from the Boston 

 Museum. It is interesting to find our Crag shells in the Icelandic deposits. 

 The latter seem to be the only relic of the Pliocene age in the north of Europe. 

 At present but little is known of their fauna, but as they are said by Dr. 

 Pjetursson to exceed five hundred feet in thickness,^ possibly representing a 

 lengthened and continuous period, they may one day throw much light on the 

 history of the Tertiary epoch and on the origin of the boreal part of our Crag 

 fauna. 



Urosalpinx is grouped by Paul Fischer and others with the Muricida?. 



1 Pjetursson, Quart. Jouru. Geol. Soc, vol. Ixii, p. 713, 1906. 



