NEPTUNEA CONTRARIA. 367 



of the Coralline Crag found at Boyton is newer than thai of Sutton and the 

 Qrford district (Gedgravian) . 



1 give also a small Bridlington specimen From the Cambridge Museum of what 

 appears to be the typical var. carinata of the Crag N. contraria (sec my PI. XVI, 

 fig. 4). It corresponds with one in my collection (PI. XXXVII, fig. 5) from the 

 Scaldisien of Antwerp which I have figured with it. 



Var. informis, F. W. Harmer. Plate XVI, fig. 6 ; PI. XXXVI, figs. 30, 31. 



1846. Fusus contrarius, E. Forbes, Mem. Geol. Surv., vol. i, p. 425. 



1888-90. Fusus contrarius, A. Bell, Rep. Brit. Assoc. (Bath), p. 135, 1888; (Leeds), p. 414, 1890. 

 1915. Neptunea contraria, A. Bell, Geol. Mag. [6], vol. ii, p. 167. 



1914. Neptwnea contraria, var. informis, F. W. Harmer, Plioc. Moll. Grt. Brit., pt. i, p. 160, pi. xvi, 

 fig. 6. 



Varietal Characters. — Shell thick and solid; Avhorls 6 or 7, convex, the last 

 ventricose and expanded, much the largest ; about three-fourths the total length 

 excavated below; ornamented by spiral stria?, causing numerous flattened, well- 

 marked, but not prominent ridges which reach the base of the shell 1 ; spire much 

 shorter than the typical Crag form or its recognised varieties, rapidly diminishing 

 in size towards a blunt apex ; suture oblique, deep ; mouth short, more or less 

 expanded ; canal very short. 



Dimensions. — L. 70 mm. B. 42 mm. 



Distribution. — Fossil: Waltonian Crag: Little Oakley (rare). Icenian : 

 Bramerton. Wexford (abundant), Isle of Man. 



Remarks.- — When studying the Neptuneas of the Oakley Crag, where the 

 sinistral N. contraria occurs in great profusion, I noticed one or two which I 

 regarded as an abnormal variety of that species, although a somewhat similar 

 but recent shell now occurs at iSpitzbergen and elsewhere in the arctic regions, 

 the latter, which is specially characterized by its short spire and ventricose and 

 expanded body- whorl, having been described and figured by Reeve, and afterwards 

 by Leche and by Dautzenberg and Fischer as specifically distinct under the name 

 of Fusus deformis. The present form has been also found in the Icenian Crag at 

 Bramerton, as it may be hereafter at other localities and in the Red Crag. It is 

 very common at Wexford, where dextral Neptuneas are very rare. 



Prof. Forbes, who considered it a reversed variety of the British and dextral 

 N. antiqua, as Jeffreys and other authorities have done since, felt the great abun- 

 dance of this left-handed shell at Wexford to be puzzling. Writing in 1846 he 

 remarked : " It is difficult to conjecture a sufficient cause for the prevalence of 



1 In sculpture, though not in form, the Wexford shells resemble to some extent those of the 

 Sicilian Pleistocene Neptuneas (cf. PI. XVI, fig. 4). 



48 



