HORTSTELL— THE INDIAN CONCH 3 



tiling definitely accomplished when we can say with certainty that at this date we have 

 positive evidence of the employment of the Indian chank, probably in religious service, 

 in one of the great capitals of the Achsemenid dynasty of Persia. An examination 

 of remains from Babylonian and Assyrian sites with a view to discover articles cut from 

 this shell might well have profitable and important historical results. 



I am well aware of the many lacunae in the story I offer, particularly in regard to 

 ancient references to the Sankha preserved in the Sanscrit classics ; there may also 

 be many valuable passages in ancient Gujarati works ; these were sealed books to me 

 and I can but hope that others with the necessary qualifications may make good what 

 is wanting in the present account. 



LIFE-HISTORY AND LOCAL RACES 



' The Indian Conch, Turbinella pyrum, Linn., is a handsome gastropod mollusc found 

 in Indian waters in large numbers in comparatively shallow water. Its geographical 

 distribution is peculiar ; on the west coast of India large numbers are fished off the Kathia- 

 war coast, but southward of this, we find no trace of the chank till we reach the southern 

 coastline of Travancore where this shell again appears and forms the object of a 

 small fishery. On the East Coast of India its distribution is more extensive, being found 

 and fished everywhere from Cape Comorin to Madras City. The northern limit on this 

 coast may be placed at the mouths of the Godaveri, where I have found a few shells, 

 all marked by stunted growth — individuals living in an unfavourable environment. 

 The northern shores of Ceylon, from Puttalam in the north-west to Trincomalee on the 

 north-east, yield large numbers of this shell ; it is also to be found at the Andaman 

 Islands. 



The bottom most favoured of Turbinella pyrum is a sandy one containing a moderate 

 proportion of mud ; this character of bottom is admirably suited to the luxuriant growth 

 of tube-building polychset worms which constitute the main food supply of the chank. 

 These polychsets are of several genera, the most abundant being Terebellids. In some 

 places in the Gulf of Mannar, square miles of sea-bottom are monopolised by these 

 Terebellids and the chanks and echinoderms which prey upon them ; a veritable Tere- 

 bella — Turbinella — Echinoderm formation. The edges of rocky reefs and the sandy 

 patches interspersed among the rocks are other favourite haunts of chanks as the worms 

 on which they prey are usually abundant there. 



A 2 



