THE TROPHONS Genus TROPHON, Montf.
Shell fusiform, thin, white, with numerous sharp lamelliform varices; spaces between them, smooth or spirally ribbed; spire elevated; canal open, turned to left; aperture oval, smooth, often 40 The Oyster Drill dark-coloured. This genus is distributed chiefly in cold waters. One group is Arctic, another Antartic. Species, forty.
Linn., is a variable species,distributed from the Arctic Seas to Vancouver's Island, Massachusetts, Iceland, Great Britain and Norway. British forms are small, i inch long, with about twenty ridges on the body whorl. The American forms are larger in many regions, and they vary in number of ribs. Doubtless they are varieties of the same species. The Ice landers call this mollusk "St. Peter's Snail." T. muriciformis, Dall, found on the Alaskan coast, is almost exactly a miniature Fulgur canaliculatus in shape. It is over two inches long. It is closely related to the preceding species.
The
Trophon (T. triangulatus, Cpr.) is large but very thin, and light of weight. Its outline is triangular; the tapering stem slopes downward from the extremities of the spreading wings of the body whorl. These are numerous and so high as to overtop the elevated spire. The colour is a soft "Quaker drab," or reddish brown; the small, round aperture is lined with white. Though an occasional specimen is washed ashore near San Pedro or at Santa Catalina Island, it is so broken as to be almost valueless. The perfect ones are dredged in deep water.
Their exquisite form and colouring repay the hard work it costs to get them. They are among the rare and lovely treasures of the deep. Length, 4 to 5 inches. Southern California.
(T. Belcheri, Hds.) is known among Cal ifornia collectors as ChorusBelcheri,Hds. It is broadlypear-shaped, four to six inches in length, its base a short, open canal. The colourless surface is dull and tinged with brown. The spire is elevated, the whorls distinctly angled at the shoulder, and con tracted to deep sutures between. Crossing the whorls are many laminated varices. The lip is thin, and drawn out into a fold at the outer, widest part. This, closing into a hollow tube as growth proceeds, forms a coronal of curved horns around the spire. There is a large tooth on the lower margin of the outer lip. The columella is narrow and rolled back above a deep um bilicus. Shells of this mollusk are picked up occasionally at low tide from San Diego to San Pedro. It is also found in Japan. Its place among the genera of Muricid is uncertain; it has the operculum of Purpura, the tooth of Monocerus, the varices and canal of Trophon. Its dentition is like that of the Buccinidx.
41