The Common, or Ordinary Cone, (_Conus generalis_,) Plate V. Fig. 1, is an elegantly-shaped and beautifully-marked shell, having much the appearance of being carved out of some rare kind of marble. The Lettered Cone, (_Conus littoralis_,) Fig. 2, appears to be scribbled over with Hebrew, Greek, or Arabic characters, and almost every species has something peculiar in its markings; clouds and veins, and dots, and stripes, and bands, of every conceivable shape and mode of arrangement, may be met with in these shells, whose surface, when the epidermis, or outer skin is removed, bears a beautiful polish. Curious names have been given to some of them, such, for instance, as the High Admiral, Vice Admiral, and Guinea Admiral, which indicate the rank they hold in the estimation of collectors. From five to twenty guineas is the price at which good and rare ones have been valued, and one, the _Conus cedo nulli_, which may be translated, the Cone second to none, has fetched the enormous sum of three hundred guineas. It must not be supposed that these shells exhibit all their beauties when, inhabited by a carnivorous, or flesh-eating mollusk, they move slowly about, or lie for a time motionless among the rocks and sand-beds of the ocean. The before-mentioned epidermis, which is the Latin for the outer skin of the human body, covers them like a cloak or mantle, which is the name it bears among naturalists. Much careful labour is required to bring them to a fit state for cabinet shells. VOLUTES form an extensive family of shells under the name _Volutinæ_. The greater part are natives of tropical seas, and dwell far down so that they are seldom found on the coast, except after storms. There are a few European species, but these are not remarkable for beauty, as most of the others are. The generic name signifies twisted, or rather wreathed, as flowers or leaves might be, about some central object. In these shells the spire is generally short, as it is in many cones, sometimes scarcely apparent; the form is usually elegant, and the markings often striking and handsome. On Plate V, will be found three examples—Fig. 3 is the Undulated Volute, (_V. undulata_,) the Latin for a little wave is _undula_, and these marks are like the lines caused by the flowing of the waves on a sandy shore: this shell is found chiefly in the South Pacific; the animal which inhabits it is prettily-marked with zebra-like stripes. Fig. 4 is called the Pacific Volute, (_V. Pacificus_;) the shape, it will be seen, is somewhat different, being more angular, and it is without the waved lines. Fig. 5, the Bat Volute, (_V. vespertilio_,) is more decidedly knobbed or spiked, approaching nearly to the shape of some of the coronated ones. This species is found in the Indian seas; the specific name is the Latin for a bat.