HABITS AND STATIONS. XXXVli 



either the northern or the southern slope, a matter of some 

 importance, since the Nuuanu-Kalihi ridge is a faunal unit 

 quite noticeably different from the Nuuanu-Pauoa ridge. The 

 locality records of Gulick are usually by valleys. Newcomb 

 generally named only the district, a far less definite indication. 



Mr. Gulick has related to me that in making his rounds 

 from one mission station to another, he would engage Kanakas 

 to collect for him. His own collecting was mainly 011 the 

 lower slopes, reached from the valleys, in the kukui tree belt. 

 Much of this territory is now barren, by recession of the forest. 



The relatively small number of land snails on the wind- 

 ward (Koolau or northern) side of the main range of Oahu 

 is not due to its ' ' rougher climate ? ' as supposed by Professor 

 Hyatt, but to the fact that the slopes are largely too pre- 

 cipitous to support forests, often so steep that they are 

 practically barren. From the summit of the main ridge, 

 reached by a long climb up the southern slope, a gigantic 

 pali, ribbed by erosion, drops beneath your feet nearly to sea 

 level. Such vegetation as finds root-hold often cannot be 

 reached further than a few rods down from the summit, where 

 one ventures clinging to bushes for support. At the foot of 

 the pali there is a talus-slope, often with kukui and other 

 trees, but at this low level there are few tree-shells or none, 

 under present conditions. 



Where long butresses extend out upon the Koolau side, 

 as in the Kailua region, and from Kahana northwestward, 

 these conditions are modified in many places ; and here the 

 forests were, or still are, rich in tree-snails, though the wood- 

 land limits have retreated far within their old boundaries. 

 Once forests with AchatinelUdcE and Endodontidce shaded the 

 plains far seaward from the lovely peak of Kaneohe, where 

 now dead shells may be picked up in plowed fields, or gathered 

 out of 'pockets' in the rocks. It has been the same in the 

 northwest. Forest-snails are found in the sand-dunes of 

 Kahuku, now far from where living tree-shells exist, 



The poverty of the ocean side of the range is therefore 

 due chiefly to the small area of forested slopes and ridges, 

 owing to the colossal erosion of this side, and also to the prac- 



