Mr. A. Hancock on some new species of Shells. 323 scapula? and the posterior surface of some of their muscles, it goes along them in descending, and turns backwards to envelope in part the upper surface of the pericardium, and above all, on each side and behind the pericardium, the upper surface of the two pairs of clavicles with their muscles. From thence it passes lastly on to the abdominal muscles. A very large fold of the pe-ritoneum, proceeding from the dorsal side and the anterior side of the body, envelopes the intestine, causing it to form a very large mesentery, then the stomach, the liver, the viscera and the pancreas. XXXVI. — A List of Shells dredged on the West Coast of Davis's Strait ; with Notes and Descriptions of eight new species. By Albany Hancock. [With a Plate.] In 1841 I received the shells comprised in the following list; they were collected by my friends Messrs. Warham and Harrison, masters of whaling vessels belonging to the port of Newcastle. These gentlemen took with them dredges for the purpose of gathering marine productions during their Arctic voyage ; and so effectually did they use these implements, that in one fortnight's dredging, the only opportunity that occurred, they procured, be-sides a considerable collection of Crustacea, thirty-four species of Testaceous Mollusca, — as many as were obtained by Captains Parry and Ross during their various northern expeditions. The collection contains many of the novelties discovered by our Arctic navigators, and also eight species which appear to be undescribed. The whole, with the exception of one, a littoral species, which was obtained from the rocks in the same locality, were dredged in a small bay or harbour, in a deep inlet on the west coast of Davis's Strait (lat. 66° 3(y, long. 68°), on a bottom composed chiefly of a stiffish blue clay. At low tide there are from twelve to fifteen fathoms water in the bay ; but during spring tides the rise is five fathoms, an unusual height for those lati-tudes. The prevailing rocks in the neighbourhood are trap and granite. Though I might have confined myself to describing merely the new species, it seems preferable to give the list entire ; as such lists are useful in forwarding our information on the geogra-phical distribution of species ; and besides, many of those already described are very little known. At present, too, the Arctic shells possess a peculiar interest derived from the recent theories re-specting the early glacial period of Europe, to the full apprecia-tion of which a critical knowledge of species is necessary. There are four or five species in the list related to Buccinum U2
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