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A shell of a Victoria River tortoise has been deposited in the British Museum. We here noticed many varieties of turbinated shells, and among them a small buccinum; beside mussels. At a native fireplace I saw heaps of the latter, as well as the bones of young alligators; portions of the jaws with teeth were picked up. The temperature during the day ranged from 90 to 105 degrees in the shade.
The Buccinum derives its name from the form of the shell, which has a wide mouth, like that of a trumpet, and which after one or two twists terminates in a pointed head. The Murex trunculus has the same general form as the Buccinum; but the shell is more rough and spinous, being armed with a number of long thin projections which terminate in a sharp point.
In most places about the neighbourhood of Fremantle, shells are found of the existing species along the coast, firmly impacted in its substance, particularly a large species of buccinum, as well as the strombus.
Its composition is peculiar, as it is chiefly formed of small pieces of pumice, obsidian, and trachyte, in beds alternating with loam, ferriferous sand, and fragments of limestone. It is evidently of marine formation, as Sir William Hamilton, Professor Pilla, and others have detected sea-shells therein, of the genera Ostræa, Cardium, Pecten and Pectunculus, Buccinum, etc.
John River, consists, as does that visited by Lyell, of oyster shells, and is of extraordinary dimensions, being three hundred feet long, and though the exact width cannot be made out, is certainly several hundred feet across. Putnam gives an account of the excavation of one of these mounds formed of shells of the MYA, VENUS, PECTEN, BUCCINUM, and NATICA genera.
They belong, mainly, to the two allied families of the Murex and the Buccinum or Purpura. Eight species of the former, and six of the latter, having their habitat in the Mediterranean, have been distinguished by some naturalists; but two of the former only, and one of the latter, appear to have attracted the attention of the Phoenicians.
"twice dipped;" and for the production of the true "Tyrian purple" it was necessary that the dye obtained from the Buccinum should be used after that from the Murex had been applied. The Murex alone gave a dye that was firm, and reckoned moderately good; but the Buccinum alone was weak, and easily washed out.
Four existing species have been regarded as more or less employed in the manufacture, and it seems to be certain, at any rate, that the Phoenicians derived the dye from more shell-fish than one. The four are the Buccinum lapillus of Pliny, which is the Purpura lapillus of modern naturalists; the Murex trunculus; the Murex brandaris; and the Helix ianthina.
Near the hinge was a smooth, round hole, through which the poor Clam had been sucked. Foot, stomach, siphon, muscles, all but a thin strip of mantle, were gone. The problem of the Natica's existence was solved, and the verification was found in more than one Buccinum minus the animal, the number of the latter victims being still an unknown quantity.
I could spend the day in showing you my Aquarium; the merry antics of the blithe Minnows; the slow wheeling of the less vivacious Sticklebacks; the beautiful siphon of the Quahaug and the Clam; the starry disk of the Serpula; the snug tent of the Limpet; the lithe proboscis of the busy Buccinum; the erect and rapid march of his little flesh-tinted cousin; the slow Horsefoot, balancing his huge umbrella as he goes; the But I cannot name them all.
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