NEPTUNE A DESPECTA. 103 



Dr. Lorie in the Amstelien of one of the Dutch borings,' representing in both cases 

 the first general and apparently sudden arrival of the distinctively northern 

 mollusca in the Anglo-Belgian basin ; the Poederlien deposits of Belgium, however, 

 may be somewhat older than those of Oakley, as such species are not so fully 

 represented in them as they are at the latter place. The shell referred to was 

 figured by Nyst {op. cit., fig. 9 d) under the name of Fums anflqnus, but it belongs 

 to the coarsely ribbed variety cariiuitn of N. despecta, as subsequently recognised 

 by Van den Broeck {op. cit.).^ 



Adult specimens of this variety are not very common at Oakley, but immature 

 or dwarf shells are somewhat more so. In sculpture it approaches the Canadian 

 species F. decemcostafns rather than the strongly keeled Scandinavian variety 

 subantiqnata, having the prominent ribs of the former ; it is a more slender shell, 

 however, and the spire is longer. 



Var. subantiquata, Maton and Rackett. Plate XVII, figs. 0, 7 ; Plate XXV, fig. 2. 



1807. Murex subantiquatus, Maton and Eackett, Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. viii, p. 147. 



1819. Murex subantiquatus, Tiirton, Conch. Diet., p. 88. 



1841-72. Fusvs tornatus, Gould, Eep. Inv. Mass., ed. i, p. 286, fig. 201, 1841 ; ed. ii, p. 374, 



tig. 641, 1872. 

 1878. Neptunea desjyeda, var. carinata, Gr. O. Sars, Moll. Beg. Arct. Norv., p. 267, tab. xiv, fig. 4 b. 

 1900-01. Neptunea despecta, var. carinata, Br0gger, Norges geol. uuders0gelse, vol. xxxi, p. 265, fig. 29. 

 1912. Neptunea antiqua, var. subantiquata, Dautzenberg et Fischer, Camp. Scient. Pr. Monaco, vol. 



xxxvii (MoUusques), p. 78, pi. ii, fig. 3. 



Varietal Characters. — Differs from the type form of N. despeda, and from the 

 varieties carhiata and decemcostata in its spiral sculpture, especially in the sharp 

 and prominent keel on the last whorl, as well as in its angulated outer lip and 

 generally in the more distinct shelf below the suture ; in specimens from the Crag 

 the spire is shorter. 



Dimensions. — L. 80 — 100 mm. B. 45 — 80 mm. 



Distribution. — Recent : widely diffused in circumpolar regions. 



Fossil : Waltonian Crag: Little Oakley (very rare) . Newbournian : 

 Ramsholt. Icenian : Bramerton. Poederlien : Antwerp. 



Pleistocene deposits of Christiania. 



^ Dr. Lorie has figured an imperfect specimen of this variety (o|j. cit.) from the Amstelien of the 

 Utrecht boring, which he has been kind enough to send me for examination ; it proves to be the same 

 as that in fig. 9 of Nyst's pi. i. The artist has mistaken the scai's of some parasitic growth — which 

 are less regular than he has shown them — for the original sculpture of the sliell ; the reverse side 

 shows, however, the characteristic spiral markings of the present variety, with the form of which the 

 fossil in c{uestion agi'ees. 



2 Murex carinatus, Turton, seems to be the variety striata of N. antiqua (Conch. Diet., p. 88, 

 pi. xxvii, fig. 95, 1819). 



