handle which could be removed to enable the whole apparatus to fit in 

 the pocket. For picking up the very small shells, we had provided 

 ourselves with a pair of very slender tweezers. A good-sized pocket- 

 knife and a small trowel, completed the outfit. 



After walking into the forest a short distance, we came to an open 

 spot where the ground was covered with a rich loam. The mass of dead 

 leaves was several inches in thickness and formed a soft bed on the 

 ground. There were also many old rotting trunks of trees scattered 

 about. Here, indeed, was an excellent locality for a conchologist. 

 Harry discovered the huge prostrate trunk of a tree before he had 

 gone many rods, and Professor Parker said that it ought to be a good 

 habitat for some of the larger snails. Judging by its moss-covered 

 surface and rotten condition, it must have lain in its present position 

 for some time. We all put our shoulders to the fallen trunk, and 

 succeeded, after several ineffectual efforts, in turning it over. 



The surface of the ground exposed by the overturned trunk was 

 fairly alive with animate creatures. Here was a reddish centipede 

 about two inches long, just disappearing down a convenient hole; 



there, in a little hollow formed by some 

 decaying leaves, was a thousand - leg, 

 or millipede, and all over both ground 

 and trunk were black, green, and red 

 beetles, and black ants : but best of all, 

 closely attached to the under side of the 

 trunk, were several fine, large speci- 

 mens of the white-lipped snail, Polt/f/t/ra 

 alboJabris. 



Professor Parker picked up one of the 

 snails (the animal of which quickly dis- 

 appeared within its shell) and explained 



. w 



White-lipped snail, showing parts to us its different parts and character- 



of shell, a, apex; ap, aperture; d, den- 

 ticle; Iw, last whorl; p, peristome; pw, 

 parietal wall; s, suture; sp, spire; u, um- 



bilicus. (Binney.) 



istics, and showed us how it differed 

 from the fresh-water snails. The shell 

 was somewhat top-shaped, and composed 

 of five or six whorls or turns which were closely and evenly coiled 

 about the axis. The spire was not elevated as in the pond snails, but 

 was very much depressed and dome-shaped ; the apex was small, and 

 light horn-colored, and the sutures separating the whorls were very 

 distinct. The last or body whorl was very large and swollen. 



The aperture, within which the animal had just disappeared, was 

 large and shaped somewhat like a half-moon. The outer lip of the 



26 



