NEW ZEALAND SHELLS. ~ 355 
Whorls.—8, short, broad, of regular increase, the last rather large ; 
they have a sloping, slightly concave shoulder; their profile 
- below the keel is straight and scarcely contracted. At the top of 
each whorl there is a slight collar, which gives the effect of a very 
slight canaliculation to the suture. The base of the shell is 
somewhat swollen, and prolonged into the shortish broad, and 
very unequal-sided snout, which lies quite on one side of the 
base. Suture strong and slightly caniculated. Mouth large, 
almost rhomboidally pear-shaped, sharply angled above, and with 
a broad open canal below. Outer lip very regularly curved 
throughout ; its edge, which is thin and sharp throughout, retreats 
at once on leaving the body, forming an open V-shaped sinus, 
which is rounded at the angle ; below this it sweeps downwards 
and very little forwards, forming a very low-shouldered wing ; 
towards the lower part of the mouth it curves very regularly 
backwards to the point of the pillar. Inner lip, which is polished 
and porcellaneous, is rather broadly excavated in the substance of 
the shell ; it is scarcely convex on the body, very slightly con- 
cave at the junction with the pillar, which is narrow and short, 
being very obliquely truncate in front, with a fine, but strong, 
sharpish twisted edge. H. 1.26; B. 0.52. Penultimate whorl, 
height, 0.23. Mouth, height 0.6; breadth, 0.34. 
I have marked the specimen from station 169 with a query. 
It is very much rubbed ; but the sculpture of the shell, and even 
of the sinus-scars, is perfectly preserved. This and the propor- 
tion and form of the successive whorls are similar, though the 
line of keel lies a little higher. The shoulder is squarer and 
shorter, while the line from the keel to the suture is larger. 
Were the localities of the two less distinct and dissimilar, I would 
not hesitate. Still, the depth at which they live may secure 
similar conditions for the species even from 35° N. to 37°S.; 
and in any case I do not feel able to part the specimens. 
In its expressed keel this very remarkable shell recalls the 
young of P. tornata, Dillw., or of P. civcinata, Dall. In form it is 
slightly like P. spivata, Lam, or P. obesa, Reeve. The resemblance 
most striking of all, however, both in form and sculpture, is one 
to which my attention was kindly drawn by Dr. H. Woodward, 
—that, viz., to P. cataphrvacta, Brocchi, a fossil from the Upper 
Miocene of the Vienna basin and Northern Italy (Brocchi ii. 221, 
No. 52, viii. 16, Lam. ix. p. 367, and Philippi, Enum. Moll. Sicil. 
i. p. 199, ii. p. 171). Compared with that species, this New Zea- 
land form is slimmer, the angulation of the whorls is less, but 
the keel on the angulation is more prominent though less 
nodulous and much lower placed, and the sinus is more remote 
from the suture and is sharper. 
PLEUROTOMA (DRILLIA) GYPSATA, Watson, lic. p. 413 
Bee tOo. tly. LO; 8874) oath 37>e34iSis olonginn79g! 22%: 
N.E. from New Zealand. 700 fms., grey ooze. Bottom tem- 
perature 40°. 
