PLATE I 



the science of Concliology has been most esteemed ; at one time, 

 the virtuosi of Holland, at another of France, and latterly of Britain, 

 have endeavoured to produce the most extensive and costly cabinets^ 

 of Conchology, and each in consequence may perhaps have excelled 

 alternately ; nor were other countries of Europe in this respect less 

 emulous, or materially deficient in the number and excellence of 

 their collections in this department of nature, during the same 

 periods. 



We have been unavoidably led into this train of digression and 

 remark from a due consideration of the very interesting history 

 connected with the shells which form the subject of the annexedl 

 Plate, the particulars of which, it is presumed, will be found to jus- 

 tify the general tendency of these observations, and these remarks 

 may be considered also as a prelude to the introduction of many 

 others among the number of those rarities which it is within our 

 contemplation to produce progressively in the course of the present 

 work ; shells, to which the prevalence of general taste has assigned 

 a value and importance scarcely less considerable than the non- 

 pareil cones, or the eminently celebrated cedo nuUi. 



The first shell in the plate before us that invites attention from^ 

 its magnitude is that superb cone delineated at figure 1 . This shell, 

 which once held a distinguished place in the Leverian Museum, is 

 two inches and six-eighths in length, its greatest breadth one inch- 

 and three-eighths. The general colour pale yellowish, with twa 

 bands of chesnut, marked with irregular arrow-headed spots of 

 white, and an intermediate narrow band composed of white spots of 

 the same form, each connected by means of an intervening dot of 



