Testa laevisubstriata ovato-oblonga, anfractu infimo subcarinato. Testa crassa, magnitudine extimo artkuli pollicis, pallida, secundum anfractus obsolete striare, acuminata, superne conica. Anfractibus infimus f. maximus subcarinatus est, sed haec carina in reliquis superioribus anfractibus evanescit, cum sutura anfractuum, evadat, que attenuata. Basis gibba, emarginata. Apertura ovata. Labium exterius crassum, patulum, striis incumbentibus. (Linnaeus.)
Shell subulately ovate, sutures of the spire deep, whorls somewhat flattened, longitudinally obliquely plicated, transversely two- to three-keeled, interstices between the keels regularly elevately striated; aperture short, lip conspicuously effused; dull yellowish-brown, lip white. (Conchologia Iconica.)
The living shell reaches a notably larger size in the North Pacific than in the North Atlantic, and the vicinity of Behring's Straits may be considered the metropolis of the species. (Tryon, Manual of Conchology.)
TYPE in Linnean Society. Type locality, Northern Sea.
RANGE. Arctic Ocean to Straits of Juan de Fuca; circumboreal.