260 
DEVONIAN FAUNA. 
1889. Etjomphalus seephla. Whidhorne. Geol. Mag., dec. 3, vol. vi, 
p. 30. 
DesGription. — Shell rather large, more or less lenticular or discoid, ellip- 
tically coiled in a few free and very distant whorls. Apex unseen, probably free. 
Spire sometimes lying in the same plane with, or even depressed below, the plane 
of the mouth, and sometimes somewhat elevated above it ; consisting apparently 
of about two volutions, which increase with considerable rapidity, and are sepa- 
rated from each other by a much greater distance than their greatest diameter. 
Whorls almost exactly circular in section, marked by numerous close, rather pro- 
minent but indistinct, straight, irregular growth-striag, which tend rather rear- 
ward from the inner to the outer side of the whorl. Shell-structure rather massive. 
8ize. — A specimen measures 9 mm. in height by 35 mm. in width and 25 mm. 
in breadth. Other specimens are found considerably larger. 
Localities. — From Wolborough there are two specimens in the Torquay 
Museum, two specimens in the British Museum, three in the Museum of Practical 
Geology, two in the Woodwardian Museum, and two in Mr. Vicary's Collection. 
From Lummaton (?) there is one specimen in the Torquay Museum and several 
fragmentary specimens in my Collection. 
Remarks . — This species appears to be moderately common at Wolborough. 
In shape it is a long, rapidly increasing, circular tube, loosely coiled once or 
twice in an elliptic curve, so that the spaces between the whorls are generally 
very much greater than the diameter of the whorls themselves, though 
not increasing in the same ratio. There does not appear to be any 
tightening of the coiling towards the apex, which seems situated some distance 
from the middle point of the ellipse, but it is possible that the true apex is lost in 
the specimens observed. The increase in the diameter of the tube appears to be 
about four times its size in the course of a volution. The surface is not particu- 
larly well preserved in any of the specimens, but in some of those from Lummaton 
it is sufficiently retained to show that it had no ornamentation except close indis- 
tinct and irregular striae or growth-lines, which crossed the whorls a little obliquely 
but without undulations or angles. The coiling of the spire seems to vary in 
elevation, being sometimes nearly in one plane, and sometimes raised so as to 
form the skeleton of a low cone. 
A comparison of the figures of Eu. serpula, de Koninck, given by foreign 
authors leads to the impression that more than one Devonian species has been 
incorrectly described under that name. The present shell appears to agree specifi- 
cally with the figure given by Sandberger, which differs, however, in ha\ang 
numerous central whorls. It is subject to so little variation, and is so individualized 
in general appearance, that we cannot regard it as identical with any of the other 
figures of foreign examples of Eu. serpula which we have examined. 
