PLATE XXI 



as a mortal favoured by their divinity Vishnu ; this treasure of the 

 deep is immediately deposited in one of their pagodas, to the great 

 honour and happiness of the discoverer. A dose of medicine from 

 such a shell is deemed infallible, if the malady of the patient be 

 within the art of medicine to cure ; for if this should fail^ they 

 rest persuaded nothing else can save the patient from the death 

 awaiting him. 



As these reversed shells are of very rare occurrence, the price 

 they bear is of course of considerable. Very few of the Pagodas 

 possess such an inestimable treasure as a Chank reversedy they will 

 command a price in Asia surpassing infinitely any idea that might 

 probably be formed upon the subject. Four or five hundred dollars 

 have been given in China, among the worshippers of Brahma, for a 

 shell of this kind. In India they have been known to produce from 

 one hundred to two hundred rupees, sometimes, three, four, or five 

 hundred rupees, or perhaps a larger sum. The shells of this kind, 

 which are purchased from the natives and brought to Europe, it 

 may be imagined, for this reason, can have been obtained only at a 

 considerable cost. It was principally through the unrivalled liberality 

 of the Conchologists of the low countries, about the beginning of the 

 last century, that the cabinets of Europe became possessed of these 

 rarities, and they still remain extremely scarce. 



Only two examples of those reversed shells have occurred to our 

 observation : both were of that kind in which the spire is elongated; 

 the high spired Turnip Shell of the Enghsh cabinets. One of these 

 reversed shells we saw in the year 1797, in the celebrated collection 

 of Mon de Calonne, ci-devant Minister of France, and which passed, 

 at a considerable price, into the collection of the Earl of Tankerville. 



