THE NAUTILUS. 41 



Davidson River and Lookingglass Creek. Headquarters were 

 made in the Schenck cabin in the Pink Beds at bench-mark 

 3278. The cabin was loaned through the kindness of the 

 United States Forestry Service, and is so located that it forms 

 a convenient base for work in the Pink Beds and the south- 

 east slopes of the Pisgah Ridge. The valley called the Pink 

 Beds is wide, covered with a dense growth of rhododendron 

 and laurel (whence the name), and lies in Transylvania 

 County between the Pisgah Ridge and mountains to the south. 

 It is all a part of the drainage basin of the French Broad 

 River. Asheville lies about thirty miles northeast and 

 Waynesville a somewhat shorter distance northwest. 



It should be remarked here that an exceptionally heavy 

 and continuous rainfall delayed arrival and interfered with 

 field work, reducing the actual time spent in the field to a 

 mere fraction of the expected amount. Living was compli- 

 cated by the isolation of the community, due to flooding and 

 landslips, so that supplies could not come in and communica- 

 tion was cut off for almost three weeks. 



The mountains are heavily timbered, with an occasional 

 "bald" at the top. In some places the trees have been thinned 

 by lumbering operations which have been supervised to such 

 an extent that the forest has been left in good condition. In 

 the valley and along the creeks rhododendrons and laurel 

 grow densely. Chestnut and oak are the prevailing trees, 

 with intermixture of many others, such as whitewood, maple, 

 beech, a.nd so forth, with an occasional pine. 



There seemed to be a decided aversion for chestnut wood 

 on the part of the snails. Oak forests were the more favored 

 habitats, the woods of Rich Mountain, a long flat-topped hill, 

 yielding the greatest variety of snails. Gastrodonta elliotti 

 was found everywhere, and a small Zonitoides arboreus was 

 fairly abundant. Of the larger shells, Polygyra andrewsi 

 normalis was the common form, and often showed a decided 

 rosy tint. The ten specimens of Omphalina cuprea polita are 

 all small, possibly immature, and no others were taken. The 

 lack of lime in this granite country may account in part for 

 the scarcity of mollusks and the extreme fragility of most of 

 the larger shells. 



