used by the Maoris in the old days as a war trumpet, good 
examples of which are to be seen in the Auckland Museum. 
Captain Cook refers to this shell being used by the natives, 
“called Triton’s trumpet, with which they make a noise 
not unlike our boys sometimes make with a cow’s horn.” 
Not quite so awe-inspiring as a blast from the “ponderous 
Sea horn ...a signal deep and dread as those the storm- 
fiend at his rising blows,” sung of by Thomas Moore in 
“Lalla Rookh.” One description by a scientific explorer, 
the other by a melodious poet. All the Tritons, as well as 
the Tun and Helmet shells, are said to secrete sulphuric 
acid, which the animals us in dissolving the outer lip when 
making an addition to the shell. 
CYMATIUM EXARATUM (cyma, a wave; exaratum, 
ploughed up, or engraved).—Rather a small spiral uni- 
valve, less than two inches in height, of an orange-brown 
colour, with light-brown nodules. The whorls of the spire 
are flat-shouldered, with well-marked ribs, crossed by axial 
ribs, nodulous where the crossing takes place; on the body 
whorl are five prominent spiral ribs, and a number of fine 
ones below. There are two high varices on the body 
whorl, one of which is to the outer side of the aperture. 
The mouth is white, oval, toothed on the inner side of the 
outer lip, and ending below in a straight, narrow, open 
canal, which is bent somewhat backwards. It is rather 
a rare shell, found at Mount Maunganui, and not recorded 
from any other locality in New Zealand. Washed ashore 
after heavy gales, these shells are invariably empty, though 
the finest specimen I have seen was to all intents and pur- 
poses a live shell, for it was covered with epidermis, long, 
dense and hairy, and the interior was violet-tinted, smooth 
and glossy. 
Since writing the above notes, a live specimen has been 
dredged from the vicinity of the Hen and Chickens in 
twenty-five fathoms of water—a notable find, as the ani- 
mal had not been seen before, and so has never been de- 
scribed. 
CYMATIUM SPENGLERI (cyma, a wave; Spengler, 
the naturalist) —This is a much larger shell than the C. 
exaratum, being about five inches in length, It is of a pale 
yellowish-brown colour, with darker brown in the grooves. 
The shoulders of the whorl are straight and sloping down- 
wards and outwards. There are eight to ten rather broad 
ribs on the body whorl; the shoulders bearing large no- 
dules. The shell is furnished with high varices, several 
on the spire, and two on the body whorl, the last being on 
93 
Plate IV 
No. 12 
Plate IV 
No. 11 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
