Shell large, heavy, rude, pinkish brown with a rosy protoconch and five rapidly enlarging whorls; nucleus swollen, large, irregular, of about two whorls, blunt at the apex; suture distinct, not channelled; whorls inflated, with a high rounded shoulder and five or six obscure swellings at the shoulder which do not-become definite ribs; there is no spiral sculpture, but the lines of growth are rude and occasionally lamellose, especially toward the aperture in senile individuals; canal short, wide, slightly recurved; aperture wide, the outer lip thickened but hardly reflected, throat whitish; body in the mature shell with a layer of whitish enamel which extends to the end of the pillar, which is arcuate, shorter than the aperture and obliquely truncate in front. Height of shell 114; max. diameter 65; height of last whorl 87; of aperture 75 mm.

The species in a general way recalls V. castanea Morch, a much smaller species common on the Aleutian islands.

Point Barrow, Alaska, sandspit.