Mollusks — Ra diata . 



7977 



in length. It appears to have attracted the attention of the scientific in France, and 

 allusion is made to a specimen in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London, 

 which I believe was found during Captain Cook's first voyage, floating dead. This 

 individual was judged, from its remains, to have been four feet long in the body, or 

 with arms seven feet ; very respectable dimensions, but far iuferior to the one now 

 under consideration. Such a specimen might tempt one to believe that some foun- 

 dation existed for the Indian accounts of enormous cuttle-fish sinking luckless vessels 

 by clasping them in their gigantic arms. At least it is to be regretted that such a 

 specimen could not be secured, though it is said consideration for the safety of his 

 men induced the commander to forbid further attempts. Shell-collecting on this 

 scale would be hazardous employment, as such a mollusk might make short work of 

 the conchologist. — George Guyon ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, January 23, 1862. 



Helix rufescens of Montagu hairy in the Young stale. — Having lately become 

 acquainted with your valuable publication as a medium of communication between 

 those interested in Natural History, I feel that I should be hiding my light under a 

 bushel were 1 to abstain from bringiug to your notice, for the information of such of 

 your readers as may be conchologists, the settlement of a doubt of loug standing with 

 regard to Helix rufescens of Montagu. I observe in Dr. Gray's edition of Turton's 

 * British Shells,' p. 157, that " Montagu represented the young of this species as 

 clothed with hairs." This fact, however, Dr. Turton and Dr. Gray doubted, and say 

 that Montagu " probably mistook the Helix hispida for it," and " both the young and 

 old shells are ^quite bald." Mr. Kenyon also expressed the same opinion in his 

 admirable " Remarks on British Land and Fresh-water Shells," in Loudon's ' Maga- 

 zine of Natural History,' i. 425. I was induced to adopt Montagu's view in 1860 by 

 finding, in a walled garden near Bath, numerous specimens of a minute hairy shell, 

 evidently young, from the unfinished state of the mouth. In this garden I have 

 failed to discover more than three kinds of Helix, viz., H. aspersa, H. pulchella and 

 H. rufescens, and therefore feel obliged to identify it with the latter as the species 

 which it most resembles. It is probable that Dr. Turton and Mr. Kenyon fell into 

 their mistake through not having examined the young shells under a magnifier. I 

 am supported in my view by the opinion of Mr. J. G. Jeffreys, to whom I lately sent 

 some specimens. After examining about a hundred specimens, I find that the shell 

 is thickly clothed with hair when from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in size, 

 after which the hair seems to fall off. The maximum and minimum size of the shells 

 in my collection is from one-fourth to one-sixteenth of an inch ; all found in the 

 same locality. — Bruce Hutton ; Q\st Regiment, South Camp, Aldershott. 



Notes on Sea- Anemones.* — As a humble disciple of that branch of Natural History 

 which your valuable researches have tended so greatly to develope, I think it will not 

 be uninteresting to you to receive a report of a circumstance which I do not remember 

 to have seen recorded in your own delightful books, or in those of Mr. Kingsley or Mr. 

 Lewis. In a tank containing about sixty anemones, &c, are eight fine specimens of 

 the Sagartia nivea, which I obtained from Ilfracombe in August last: they have been 



* Addressed to P. H. Gosse, Esq., F.R.S., and kindly communicated by him for 

 publication in the ' Zoologist.' 



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