530 Trap Rocks of Bombay. [Sept. 



Himalayana, Lea, the Hel. interrupt a is distinguished by its peculiar sculpture ; 

 its spire is also more exserted. 



The collection also contained specimens of an Arcaceous Shell found in the bed 

 of the Jumna at Hamiipur in Bandelkhand. Mr. Benson proposes for it the 

 generic appellation Scaphula. 



Referring to specimens contained in the collection of a new form of Solenace- 

 ous Shell, described by hirn in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta,' 

 under the name of Novaculina, Mr. Benson describes also a second species of the 

 genus which he has recently obtained from South America, and points out the 

 characters which distinguish it from Nov. Gangelica. 



The following Note by Mr. Benson, relative to the importation of the living 

 Cerithium Telescopium, Brug., adverted to at the Meeting on March 25, 1834, 

 (vol. v, p. 145,) was read. 



" The possibility of importing from other countries, and especially from the 

 warmer latitudes, the animals which construct the innumerable testaceous pro- 

 ductions that adorn our cabinets and museums, the accurate knowledge of which 

 is so necessary, to enable the conchologist rightly to arrange this beautiful depart- 

 ment of nature, must be an interesting subject to every naturalist, and will 

 render no apology necessary for the following notices extracted from my journal. 

 Their publicity may incite others who may have opportunities of trying the 

 experiment, to follow the example. 



" January, 1832. Observed near the banks of the canal leading from the eastern 

 suburb of Calcutta to the Salt Lake at Balliaghat, heaps of a Cardita, with longi- 

 tudinal ribs, of a large and thick Cyrina, and of Erithium Telescopium, exposed to 

 the heat of the sun, for the purpose of effecting the death and decay of the includ- 

 ed animals, previously to the reduction of the shells into lime. 



" Early in the month I took specimens of them, and leaving them for a night 

 in fresh water, I was surprised to find two Cerilhia alive. I kept them during a 

 fortnight in fresh water, and on the 22nd January, carried them, packed up in 

 cotton, on board a vessel bound for England. After we had been several days at 

 sea, I placed them in a large open glass, with salt water, in which they appeared 

 unusually lively. I kept them thus, changing the water at intervals, until the 

 29th May, when we reached the English Channel. I then packed them up, as 

 before, in a box, and carried them from Portsmouth to Cornwall, and thence to 

 Dublin, which I did not reach until the 14th June ; here they again got fresh 

 supplies of sea-water at intervals. One of thein died during a temporary absence, 

 between the 30th June and 7th July ; and on the 11th July, the survivor was 

 again committed to its prison, and was taken to Cornwall, and thence to London, 

 where it was delivered alive to Mr. G. B. Sowerby on the 23rd July. 



" This animal had thus travelled, during a period of six months, over a vast 

 extent of the surface of the globe, and had for a considerable portion of that 

 time been unavoidably deprived of its native element." — W. H. B. 



4. — Minerals of the Trappean Rocks of Bombay. 



The following list of the minerals which occur in the volcanic rocks of the 

 several islands in the harbour of Bombay is extracted from a paper by Dr. R. D. 

 Thomson hi the ' Records of General Science, 11 for April, 1835. 



1. Basalt of Salsette : dark -grey or blackish, with numerous crystals of olivine 

 and augite interspersed. 



