number secrete an external and univalve shell, but some few, as the common slug, are "naked" or possess merely a rudimentary shell: and in the chitons the shell is composed of several pieces. Some gasteropods, as the common snail, are terrestrial. Others, as the limnea, paludina, and planorbis, species of which are so common in our lakes and streams, inhabit fresh-water; but the greater number inhabit the sea. The class may be subdivided naturally into two leading groups: Branchifera or water-breathers, and Pulmonifera or air-breathers.

The Branchifera, furnished with gills or branchiæ for breathing the air contained in water, include all the fluviatile and marine types. They fall into two sections: Siphonostomata and Holostomata. In the former, the opening or so-called "mouth" of the shell is more or less deeply notched at one or both extremities, or is otherwise lengthened into a kind of slit tube or "canal." The species are marine, and all are carnivorous. Comparatively few occur in the lower fossiliferous rocks, the place of the carnivorous gasteropods having been apparently supplied in great part, in the early geological epochs, by numerous predatory cephalopods. An example of this section is shewn in fig. 120, representing a species of Buccinum (closely allied to the existing B. undatum, if not identical with that species,) from the Post-Tertiary deposits of Eastern Canada.

Fig. 120.

In the Holostomata, the aperture of the shell has an uninterrupted and more or less circular margin. The species are almost entirely vegetable-feeders. Representatives occur in all the fossiliferous rocks, and are numerous in existing Nature. The annexed figures

represent several of our more characteristic Canadian examples. Figure 121 is the Ophileta (formerly Maclurea,) compacta of the Calciferous-sand group (Lower Silurian.) Fig. 122 represents Murchisonia gracilis, (a, shewing internal cast); and fig. 123 exhibits a cast of Murchisonia sub-fusiformis of the Trenton and Hudson River Groups. Pleurotomaria (or Trochonema) umbilicatula, a common Trenton fossil, is shewn in fig. 124; and a cast of Euomphalus rotundus (?), a Devonian form, in figure 125.

The Pulmonifera, in place of branchiæ, possess a simple form of lung-structure by which they breathe air directly from the atmosphere. Some, as the snails, are terrestrial; others inhabit ponds, streams, and fresh-water lakes. All are vegetable-feeders; and the shell, in those forms which secrete one, is more or less light and thin. Our only fossilized examples, comprising existing species of Helix, Limnea, Planorbis, &c., occur in the higher Drift or PostTertiary deposits of Western Canada. These will be referred to, more particularly, in PART V.

The concluding part of this division of our subject, embracing the CEPHALOPODS, &c., will be given in a succeeding Number of the Journal.

REVIEWS, TRANSLATIONS, AND SELECTED

ARTICLES.

NOTICES OF PAPERS IN FOREIGN JOURNALS.

1. On the Existence of Dibranchiate Cephalopods of great bulk.The Cephalopods, the highest types of molluscous development, fall into two leading groups or orders. In the lower group, the animal possesses four branchiæ and numerous arms, and secretes an external many-chambered shell. The nautilus is the only remaining type of this group, so rich in representatives during the earlier and middle epochs of geological history. The forms of the second and higher group, have but two branchiæ, and but eight or ten arms; but these latter are provided with suckers, or organs for obtaining a powerful hold of their prey; and the animal is also furnished with a gland for the secretion of a dark fluid, which is ejected into the surrounding water when the creature is pursued or alarmed. These dibranchiate cephalopods inhabit a shell of a single chamber, as in the argonaut, or are otherwise "naked," as in all other types, including the sepia or cuttle-fish, the calamary, &c., genera unprovided with an external shell.

The known species belonging to the naked cephalopoda, vary in length, as a general rule, from two or three to eight or ten inches; although a few species, in warm seas, attain to a length of two or even three feet. From time to time, however, strange accounts of gigantic cuttle-fishes have obtained, as in the case of the fabulous sea-serpent, a wide notoriety, and even a certain amount of credence, though finally regarded as altogether unworthy of belief. Many of these narrations, as that of the celebrated Kraken of Denis de Montfort, are evidently gross exaggerations, if not absolutely imaginary; but, at the same time, the existence of dibranchiate cephalopods of large bulk, and of species as yet unknown to science, appears to be substantially true. The dead form discovered during the voyage of Quoy and Gaimard, and to which a weight of 224 tbs., was attributed-the huge arms and other portions of a cephalopod found by Professor Steenstrup-and the large speeies, estimated to measure six feet in length, seen during the voyage of Banks and Solander

may be mentioned in support of this view. Quite recently, a living cephalopod of still larger dimensions than those just cited, was encountered by the French frigate Alecton, between Madeira and Teneriffe. A description of this sea-monster is published by M. Bouyer, the lieutenant commanding the vessel, and another by the French consul at Teneriffe, in a recent number of the Comptes Rendus, (No. 27, tome liii). We translate from these a few of the more interesting passages.

The lieutenant of the vessel, M. Bouyer, writes from Teneriffe, under the date of December 2nd, 1861, to the Minister of Marine, le Maréchal Vaillant, as follows:-" I have the honor to inform your Excellency, that, after a favourable run, I cast anchor yesterday in these roads. A somewhat singular incident characterised our voyage. On the 30th of November at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when about forty leagues N. E. of Teneriffe, we encountered a monstrous animal, which I recognised as the Poulpe géant, a creature generally regarded as belonging rather to fable than to reality. Finding myself in the presence of so remarkable a species-of one of those strange forms which the ocean sometimes casts up from its depths as though to tantalize and defy science-I resolved to examine it more closely, and, if possible, to secure it. Unfortunately a strong sea was running at the time, and this impeded the evolutions of the frigate; whilst the animal itself, although almost always at the surface of the water, moved two and fro with a sort of intelligence, and seemed anxious to avoid the vessel. After several attacks, during which the creature was struck by about a dozen musket balls, we succeeded in getting sufficiently near to harpoon it, and contrived to work the line of the harpoon around its body. Whilst preparing to strike it anew, the creature by a sudden and violent effort freed itself from the harpoon; but the lower portion of its body, around which the cord was twisted, became torn away, and a large mass weighing over twenty kilogrammes (about 40 pounds) was drawn on board.

We obtained a sufficient view of the animal to make a good sketch of it. It was evidently a gigantic calamary, but the form of the tail seemed to indicate an undescribed species. It appeared to

* M. Bouyer, it will be perceived, has a somewhat crude notion of the proper characters of the group to which the the animal seen by him belongs. In another part of his letter, he calls the cephalopod in question, "un être ebauché, a viscous and colossal embryon." When he wrote his description, he had evidently in his recollection that amusing book, as regards matters scientific, the "la mer of M. Michélet.

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measure from fifteen to eighteen feet from head to tail. The head, in shape like a parrot's beak, was surrounded, by eight arms of from five to six feet in length.* Its aspect is frightful; its colour, brickred. In a word, this rudimentary creature, this viscous and colossal embryon, presents an aspect at once repulsive and terrible.†

M. Bouyer then goes on to state, that his officers and men wished to lower a boat and renew the attack, but that he feared to expose them to so unequal a contest, and that, finally, the chase was abandoned. The description drawn up by M. Berthelot, the French consul at Teneriffe, agrees essentially with that of M. Bouyer, although differing in some of its details. The animal is said to have presented a fusiform body, five or six metres in length, with a pair of fleshy lobes or fins at its lower extremity. It is also stated, that when wounded by one of the musket balls, the creature vomited a large quantity of blood mixed with slimy matters of a strong musky odour. A species of Eledone is known to emit an odour of this kind; but there are two points here of a somewhat suspicious character. In the first place, the blood of the cephalopods, as that of other mollusca, is colorless; and secondly, is it not remarkable that no mention is made of any discharge of "ink," during the attack to which the animal was subjected? The supposed appearance of blood, however, may have been.caused by a discharge of this kind.

To the observations recorded by the actual observers of this creature, M. Milne Edwards has added the following remarks:"The animal described in these communications, belongs apparently to one of those species of gigantic cephalopods, of which the existence has already been announced on various occasions, and the remains of which are preserved in several museums: in that, for example, of the College of Surgeons in London. Aristotle speaks of a large calamary (Tevois), five cubits in length; and without referring to the fables of Pliny, and the evident exaggerations of Olaus Magnus and Denis de Montfort, we may recall the discovery of Péron, on the coast of Tasmania, of a calamary with arms of six or seven feet in length, and seven or eight inches in diameter. More recently

* In the calamary the arms are ten in number. If the species really belong to the octopod division of the cephalopoda, it can scarcely be referred to any recognised genus. All the known octopods appear to possess a comparatively short and bursiform body, without "a tail" or expansion at the lower extremity.

We here translate literally. It is perhaps needless to observe that the cephalopods are of comparatively high organization, or present, at least, nothing of an embryonic character. M. Michélet, we fear, has to answer for our author's zoology.