1G2 



The Naturalist. 



the reasons wliicli mitigate a shell-collector's dredging ardour. That 

 good stuff lines the border bottom of our quaint old ocean I am sure. 

 How to get at it is another question, and we are compelled to accept 

 what his eccentric whim may cast ashore. Against such opposition 

 Rous calculates as a good day's work the bagging of one fair shell, and 

 so do T. More than once have I tramped my twenty miles o'er rocks 

 and sand, on naked feet, to return with one decent Terehratula* or one 

 Marginella^ or one GyprfBa. Now and then a capital haul turns up : 

 Kraussia rubra, or Terebratula radiata in quantities after a sea-breeze, 

 and other shells in due order, but very seldom is this the case. 



The localisation of shells on this coast is noticeable. Walking on 

 the sand towards Port Elizabeth, until the Zwartkops river is reached, 

 vast quantities of bivalves, Donax, Vemis, Mytilus\ and sometimes 

 Pinna , are found ; then past the town round by Cape Recife a break 

 occurs, when they re-commence and continue to the next pile of rocks, 

 and so on indefinitely. But it is impossible to connect a fixed law 

 proving the habitats or peregrination antics of Algoa mollusca, although 

 aching limbs through useless roving have relegated my hopes of new 

 finds in distant solitary spots, and although I have proved most 

 conclusively the value of a site selected. I know just where to go to risk 

 the taking of a decent Fupillia (see PI. ix., Fig. 5). I know that from 

 the Beacons to Recife is a good ground for Conus tiniarms, C. rosaceus 

 (Fig. 3), and our eagerly sought for Valuta Bullata. I know one 

 sequestered sand nook anent a mighty cave, where a certain Spirula is 

 a dead certainty. I would it were otherwise. Of V. Bullata, from 

 fifty-four collected specimens I have managed to secure one really 

 handsome (Fig. 1, nat. size). Our representative collections show a 

 deficiency in marine fauna, but I do not believe the one figured can 

 be beaten in any African -museum. Next to Bullata I have prized 

 Marginella, Mosaica (Fig. 2) seldom obtained in good condition. I 

 count upon six species of this genus from P^ E., but I cannot state 

 accurately without comparison. Of these M. piperata is decidedly 

 most abundant. I have classed a yellow species independently, but it 

 is probably only a mimetic form of the last named. The variety, if 

 variety it is, appears constant in size and colour. Port Alfred is richer 

 in species of the genus, and I have one from that locality not men- 

 tioned by Krauss, awaiting christening. Gyprovulum Capensis is 

 decidedly fitful, as regards worthy specimens. CyprcBa edentula occurs 

 this year in thousands, and some are lovely shells with purple bands, 



* We have three Terebratula — one wanting a name. 



