SAMUEL MARSDEN. 
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beautiful, is a bright green one found in Wellington Harbour, 
having concentric circles of lines, commencing from the peak 
of the shell and reaching its base. 
Fam. Haliotidce. — Several varieties of this beautiful shell 
are very generally distributed throughout Hew Zealand. 
The Haliotis Pawa is little inferior either in size or splen- 
dour to those of the tropics, the finest have now become an 
article of export for that newly-acquired art of lacquering 
brought from Japan. The natives likewise greatly prize 
them for fish-hooks and eyes for their carved figures. They 
also eat the fish alive as we do the oyster, and likewise dry it 
for winter consumption, but it is tough and tasteless ; it might, 
perhaps, be rendered more palatable by better cooks. 
Of the Fam. Janthinidce, three kinds are thrown up on 
our shores, these beautiful blue deep sea helices are by no 
means uncommon. The Janthina Fragilis is large, flattened 
above and white, the lower part being light purple or blue. 
The J. Communis , in form resembles a paludina, being more 
pyramidical and of a intense blue, delicately shaded, with a 
slight periostracum. The third variety, J . Exigua , is nearly 
of the same form, but the shell is smooth and of a lighter 
color. The whalers state they find myriads of this sin- 
gular little family amongst what they call the slick of the 
whale, or the oil which escapes in cutting up the fish, it is 
probable, therefore, that it is not altogether a plant eater, as 
Lamarck conjectured ; nature provides the Janthina with the 
means of constructing a raft of air bubbles, that in the same 
way the land helices crawl along the ground, this marine 
one may skim along the surface of the ocean, and there meet 
with its proper nourishment. 
Fam. Crepedulidce. — The slipper shell, very common both 
in Hew Zealand and Australia, some attain a considerable 
size, one is round and covered with a thick epidermis. 
One of the most delicate and beautiful of our shells is the 
Argonauta Hodosoe, muheke, paper nautilus ; this is generally 
found after storms on the eastern shores of the Great Barrier, 
Mayor, and other islands in that part ; smaller ones are 
occasionally found at the entrance of Cook's Straits. The 
