THK NAUTILUS. 31 



speculation relative to the origin and distribution of Helix hortensis, 

 in America, I will state that in ray opinion they were introduced by 

 the early French settlers in Canada, at Gaspe and along the St. 

 Lawrence River; and that their distribution only along the coast is 

 due to the more favorable conditions. The long cold winters 

 sometimes commencing in September and lasting into the middle of 

 May in Canada and Maine, are too severe and long for Helix hor- 

 tensis to spread over the interior. Along the coast, and on the 

 islands, the winters are not as long or as intensely cold as in the 

 interior. I have gone over a very large part of northern Maine and 

 a good part of New Brunswick and have never seen //. hortensis. 



I have collected Helix hortensis at Horte and Sberlotenlund on 

 the south coast of Sweden within a few steps of the water edge of 

 the Baltic Sea. 



A NEW WEST INDIAN NITIDELLA. 



BY WM. II. DALL. 



During a recent visit to Cuba Mr. John B. Henderson, Jr., col- 

 lected a few marine shells from the rocks along shore, between tides, 

 at Ensenada de Cochinas, on the south side of the island. Among 

 them was the following species which I have been unable to identify 

 among the described forms of the genus. 



Nitidella hendersoni n. sp. 



Shell thin, fusiform, with an elongate, very acute spire, and about 

 eight whorls; nucleus minute, white, smooth; subsequent whorls 

 flattish with an appressed suture, pinkish near the nucleus, later be- 

 coming translucent with dark chestnut-brown lineolations, zigzags or 

 dots, frequently with white, protractive, oblique flammulations at the 

 suture of which the anterior margins are bordered with a dark 

 chestnut line ; also on the periphery is often a narrow articulated 

 band, of white and brown spots ; the surface is covered with a con- 

 spicuous greenish periostracum, which on the body whorl is elevated 

 in axial lamellae not close enough to give a velvety effect but sep- 

 arated by wider polished spaces ; surface nearly smooth under the 

 periostracum, polished, with faint indications of fine axial or revolv- 

 ing striae ; on the base there are numerous spiral grooves which 



