CONCHOLOGY. 



edged ribs. The opening or mouth, oblong, ample, abbreviated or 

 cut off below, and without canal. The pillar, or inner lip, smooth, 

 or without plaits or tubercles, and terminating in a point at the base. 

 The absence of a canal is one material character by which the Harpa 

 genus, as thus laid down, is to be distinguished from the new genus 

 Trophon, to which, in some respects, at least, it bears a general 

 resemblance. The definition of the genus by De Montfort is rather 

 different from that of Lamark : according to De Montfort the shells 

 of this family are globose ; the first whorl very far surpassing the 

 rest in size, and the spire obtuse. The mouth is very open. The 

 pillar or inner lip smooth and rounded. The outer lip bordered by 

 an acutely edged rib or ridge, running paralled to those with which 

 the shell is traversed externally, and the base cut off. The spire in 

 the true Harpa, according to this writer, forms a kind of little domes, 

 one surmounting the other, and the spire, instead of ending in an 

 acute point, terminates in a small mammillated knob. 



All the known varieties of this natural family are inhabitants of 

 the deep waters of the sea, and the animal inhabitants appear to have 

 remained hitherto un described. They are confined chiefly to the 

 Indian Seas. The variety known by the name of Nobilis is a native 

 of Japan; there is another found in China, distinguished by the 

 name of Chinensis : both these are considered by Dr. Solander as the 

 Buccinum Harpa of Linnaeus : there is one kind found at Ceylon, 

 and another at Madagascar, which are to be esteemed distinct species. 

 The sanguineous Harp, from the Coast of Guinea, is the Buccinum 

 pandura of Solander. The Harp, distinguished by having a far 

 greater number of elevated ribs than any of the preceding, is from the 

 seas of the Phillippine Isles, and is certainly a distinct species. The 



