THE NAUTILUS. 15 



household orders were that the helices were to be left undisturbed 

 by brush or broom. The summer came and went, autumn followed, 

 winter came on and still our hermaphrodites "held the fort." No 

 sound of mirth nor music aroused them. 



But the rains came on. heavy drenching showers that rushed down 

 the mountains, washed the foot-hills, overflowed the ozanjas, and all 

 nature was in a dripping condition. During one of these storms in 

 January, 1891, the rain came down with such force that it made in- 

 vidious incursions into the hall during the night, and the snail was 

 found on th-i floor. In an hour it was as willing as ever to struggle 

 for existence. It ate heartily of celery with its little rasping tongue 

 (radula) beset with multitudes of tiny siliceous teeth. 



It was not until February 23 that the other Helix had been 

 sufficiently overcome by the forces of nature to loosen its epiphragm 

 enough to descend to the floor. It 'was placed in a shallow saucer of 

 water, and it assumed its functions as though they had not been 

 arrested. 



While these house snails were glued to the ceilings, their relatives 

 in the snailery in the garden had been aroused to activity by the first 

 rain as it pattered through the screen cover ; and on January 2, 

 1891, I found a number of tiny pellucid-looking balls carefully 

 hidden in the moist earth in the snailery. These were the eggs of 

 the snails. In less than three weeks there were young snails. Time 

 had been lost by the house snails, their aestivation extending beyond 

 the requirements of nature had gained them nothing. 



It was my intention to study all these forms, and while giving a 

 rest to the " house snails," compare their longevity with the garden 

 helices. But, alas, for the rapacity of the animal kingdom, sowbugs, 

 ants and insects from the rose bushes made war upon the whole snail 

 colony, adults, babies and eggs, and by summer time the houses 

 were empty, the tenants were gone ! 



A NEW SPECIES OF LIMA. 



I;Y w. H. DALL. 



Recent excavations involved in the construction of a tunnel 

 through a hill at Los Angeles, California, on the line of Third street, 

 have developed the presence of fossils, probably Pliocene, in the blue 

 clay through which the tunnel is being cut. 



