198 
seend, very elegantly. The aperture in half grown shells 
is quadrate ; in full grown individuals the right lip is 
semicircular. The beak is a little twisted ; the edge of 
it rises upon the columella like a plait ; above this is an 
obtuse plait upon the columella ; and a third plait, or 
rather ridge, sometimes occurs just above the columella. 
Its length often exceeds a foot; the diameter of the last 
whorl is one-fourth the length in general, but sometimes 
the shell is less taper. The whorls are above 30 in num- 
ber. 
The clay, mixed with green sand, exposed at low tides 
under Stubbington Cliff, has afforded fragments of this, 
the most ornamental fossil shell I know ; but these are 
in a bad state of preservation, not only in consequence 
of their exposure to the ocean, but from having been 
much perforated by some worms, that have threatened 
the rapid destruction of their usurped habitation before 
it was consigned to the earth, to be preserved for ages 
yet to come. I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Hol- 
loway for a specimen, which from its situation was diffi- 
cult to be obtained : it is represented at fig. 1 : perhaps, 
if the stratum could be explored before the sea had acted 
upon it, specimens might be procured in a high state of 
preservation. My good friend Mr. De Gerville has sent 
me from the Cotentin a good series of the same species, 
delicately preserved, but not perfect at either extremity ; 
several of them are worm-eaten, like the Stubbington 
ones : fragments of the upper parts are shewn for illus- 
tration at figs. 3 and 4. As it is often filled with minute 
shells, Mr. DeGervillehas been in thehabitof calling it by 
a name analogous to cornucopias, a name I have thought 
sufficiently expressive of its magnitude or capaciousness 
to apply : it is also applicable to the giver’s generosity, 
whose horn of plenty I hope to have the pleasure of 
emptying into the lap of science at no very remote period. 
