100 THE NAUTILUS. 



NOTES ON COLLECTING SHELLS IN CHINA. 



BY JOHN B. HENDERSON. 



When I saw Mr. Schmacker's splendid collection of Chinese 

 mollusks in Shanghai, and looked over Pi-re Heude's Unios at Sic- 

 t way, I was laying the foundation for a bitter disappointment when 

 I took to the field myself. The great alluvial plains extending from 

 Peking and the Gulf of Pechelli on the north to Shanghai and the 

 lower Yangtsze on the south, are not particularly rich in species. 

 My good friend, Mr. Schmacker assured me that "the hills" fairly 

 trembled with molluscan life; but the hills were far away, the sea- 

 son unfavorable, so I continued my search along the muddy banks of 

 the rivers and the slimy waters of the canals near Shanghai, with from 

 fair to poor success, it being then too cold (January) for land shells. 



The bulk of Chinese Unios that so closely resemble our Missis- 

 sippi forms, live almost entirely in the upper waters of the great 

 rivers and their tributaries that flow through the high lands of the 

 interior provinces. In the neighborhood of Shanghai, Unio mur- 

 i-Iiixoniiiiuix and Anodonta woodiana were the only naiads I met 

 with, but these were generally abundant. Corbiculas and the two 

 Viviparas, chinenxis Bens, and qitadrata Bens, are plentiful in the 

 canals. I secured the services of one, Ah Sin, a bland and suave 

 celestial, to collect for me. Ah Sin brought me. day by day, num- 

 bers of Cyelina ^'//r.v/,s wrapped in endless papers, that lie assured 

 me were rare and highly desirable Unios from the inaccessible 

 Thibetan frontier. So Ah Sin proved a failure. 



Upon a three days' journey iu a house-boat from Tientsin to 

 Tuugchow (on the Pei-Ho River), I did not observe a single shell 

 of any kind. From Tungchow to Peking, about 15 miles, I 

 gathered quantities of Viripara, Unio and Corbwula in the canal, 

 and in the dried pools by the roadside many l.iminnt. The walls of 

 Peking swarm with Cathaica pyrrhozona ; 1 even gathered a number 

 of them in my bed-room, where they clung to the ceiling. This 

 species has a wide distribution throughout China, as well as Bith- 

 inia striaiula Bens, which I gathered in the canals about Tientsin. 



Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to try the good marine col- 

 lecting of the southern China coast, my only attempts for marines 

 being in the immediate vicinity of Shanghai and at Che Foo and 

 Taku on the (iulf'of Pechelli in the north. The fauna of this 

 region is not particularly interesting, consisting only of a limited 



