238 REMARKS ON CONCIIOLOGY AND MALACIIOLOGY* 
and less cylindrical in shape: Captain Congalton of the II, C. Steamer 
££ Hooghly” obligingly sent me one that was lately fished up in 
a ten fathom” Mater near Sultan’s Shoal to the westward of Sin¬ 
gapore, the shell was partially imbedded in a species of sponge, on 
detaching it from which, I found the cavity of the spongy mass lined 
with the young fry of the Cypraea, differing however in several res¬ 
pects from that of the C. oiivaceainstead of being contained in one 
membraneous envelope there were above two hundred transparent 
sacs not larger than grains of mustard seed and each containing 
about 30 shells so minute that they could not he distinguished with¬ 
out the aid of a miscroscope, at a moderate computation there could 
not have been less than six thousand young shells: the difference 
in size is remarkable as the Cypraea oiivacea which had the largest 
offspring is a much smaller shell than the one at present under con¬ 
sideration: in this easel had not an opportunity of studying their 
habits &c. as the animals were dead, having been many hours out of 
the water; wiien examined under a microscope the shape of the shell 
was found to resemble exactly that of the young C. oiivacea above 
described. 
On various parts of the coast particularly on Coral hanks, a 
considerable number of Echini may be observed which, (although 
Naturalists have separated them from the Testaceous Mollusca) it 
may not be out of place to mention here; one species in parti¬ 
cular I cannot find to have been hitherto described; tiie shell is 
spheroidal, flattened, not more than two inches in diameter and 
of a dark purple colour, the spines are numerous, six or eight 
inches long, black, very slender and sharp pointed and somewhat 
elastic; the animal is found along the edges of Coral reefs, and 
moves with tolerable rapidity by means of its spines, when closely 
pursued it has the faculty of darting itself forward against its 
opponent and thereby inflicting considerable injury with its sharp 
spines, the points of which often break off and remain in the wound. 
The foregoing remarks may in some measure suffice to shew 
what a wide field this country presents to those who have leisure 
or inclination to prosecute this branch of Natural History: should any 
other remarkable facts connected with the subject come to my 
notice, I shall be happy to give publicity to them from time to 
time in future numbers of the Journal, 
