brightest colours, that a little more than a third part of the ground is feen. Broad fafciæ, the most charmingly varied, furround it, and the clavicle is the most elegant of ob jects in colours, brightness and irregularities. There is a punctuated line of variations that runs in the centre of the yellow fascia, and is wonderfully pretty. This beautiful East Indian fells at a great price.

The Crown 3. The crown imperial is likewife exImperial. tremely beautiful. This voluta is four inches long, two in diameter at the top, and its head adorned with a charming series of fine tubercles, pointed at the extremities. The ground is a clear pale, and near the head and extremity of the fhell, two very beautiful zones run round. They are of the brightest yellow, and in a manner the most elegant, are variegated with black and white purple. It is an Eaft Indian.

The He

ter.

4. The Hebrew letter, another voluta, is brew Let- a fine curiofity. It is two inches in length, and an inch and a quarter in diameter at the top. It is a regular conic figure, and its exerted clavicle has feveral volutions. The ground is like the white of a fine pearl, and the body all over variegated with irregular marks of black, which have a near refemblance of the Hebrew characters. This elegant fhell is an East Indian.

The

Voluta.

5. The white voluta, with brown and The white blue and purple spots. This very elegant fhell, whofe ground is a charming white, is found on the coaft of Guinea, from five to fix inches in length, and its diameter at the head often three inches. It tapers gradually, and at the extremity is a large obtuse. Its variegations in its spots are very beautiful, and its spots are principally disposed in many circles round the fhell.

terfly.

6. The butterfly is a voluta the most ele- The Butgant of this beautiful genus. Its length is five inches in its perfection, and two and a half broad at the head. The body is an obtufe cone: the clavicle is pointed, and in feveral volutions. The ground is the finest yellow, and beautifyed all over with small brown fpots, in regular and round feries. These variegations are exceeding pretty, and as this rare Eaft Indian fhell has beside these beauties three charming bands round the body, which are formed of large fpots of a deep brown, a pale brown, and white, and refemble the spots on the wings of butterflies, it is a beautiful fpecies indeed. The animal that inhabits this fhell is a limax.

7. The tulip cylinder is a very scarce and The Tulip beautiful native of the Eaft-Indies, and in its Cylinder." state of perfection and brightnefs of colour, of great value. Its form is cylindric, its length four inches, and its diameter two and

E

a half

a half, at its greatest increase. Its clavicle has many volutions, and terminates in an obtufe point. The ground colour is white, and its variegations blue and brown. They are thrown into irregular clouds in the most beautiful manner, and into fome larger and smaller spots. The limax inhabits this fine fhell.

I likewife faw in this grotto the finest fpecies of the purpura, the dolia, and the porcellana. There was of the first genus the thorny woodcock: of the fecond, the harp Shell: and of the third, the argus fhell. The thorny 8. The thorny woodcock is ventricofe, and Woodcock. approaches to an oval figure. Its length, full

The Harp.

grown, is five inches; the clavicle short, but in volutions diftinct; and its roftrum from the mouth twice the length of the reft of the shell. This fnout and the body have four series of fpines, generally an inch and half long, pointed at the ends, and fomewhat crooked. The fpines lie in regular, longitudinal feries. The mouth is almoft round, but the opening is continued in the form of a fit up the roftrum. The colour of this American, and extremely elegant fhell, is a tawny yellow, with a fine mixture of a lively brown, and by bleaching on the coafts, it gets many spots of white.

9. The beautiful harp is a Chinese; three inches and half long, and two and a half

in diameter. The fhell is tumid and inflated, and at the head largeft. It has an oblong clavicle in feveral volutions, pointed at the extremity, and the other extreme is a fhort roftrum. The whole furface is ornamented with elevated ribs, that are about twice as thick as a ftraw, and as diftant from each other as the thickness of four ftraws. The colour is a fine deep brown, variegated with white and a paler brown, in a manner furprizingly beautiful.

10. The extremely elegant argus is from The Argus the coaft of Africa, and is fometimes found in the East-Indies. Its length, in a state of perfection, is four inches and a half; its diameter three. It is oblong and gibbous, has a wide mouth, and lips fo continued beyond the verge, as to form at each extremity a broad and fhort beak. The colour is a fine pale yellow, and over the body are three brown fafciæ: but the whole furface, and these fafciæ, are ornamented with multitudes. of the most beautiful round spots, which refemble eyes in the wings of the finest butterflies. The limax inhabits this charming fhell. This creature is the fea-fnail.

II. The concha of Venus was the next The concha fhell in this young lady's collection that en- of Venus. gaged my attention. One of them was three inches long, and two and a half in diameter. The valves were convex, and in longitudinal E 2

di

The Ham

direction deeply ftriated. The hinge at the prominent end was large and beautifully wrought, and the opening of the fhell was covered with the most elegant wrinkled lips, of the most beautiful red colour, finely intermixed with white; these lips do not unite in the middle, but have flender and beautiful fpines round about the truncated ends of the shell. This fhell of Venus is an American, and valued by the collectors at a high

rate.

12. But of all the curious fhells in this wonmer Oytter, derful collection, the hammer oyfler was what I wondered at moft; it is the most extraordinary fhell in the world. It resembles a pickax, with a very short handle and a long head. The body of the shell is in the place of the handle of the inftrument, and is four inches and a half long, and one inch and a half in diameter. What anfwered to the head of the pickax was feven inches long, and three quarters of an inch in diameter. This head terminates at each end in a narrow obtuse point, is uneven at the edges, irregular in its make, and lies crosswife to the body: yet the valves fhut in the closest and most elegant manner. The edges are deeply furrowed and plated, and the lines run in irregular directions. The colour without is a fine mixture of brown and purple; and within, a pearly white, with a tinge of

purple.