22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1888. 



it embraces some seven species. Specimens of Carelia turricula 

 Migli. in my cabinet measure three inches long. This group has no 

 place in the AchatineUa family, as classed by M. Gulick. It lacks 

 the peculiar spiral twist of the columella and other generic charac- 

 ters of that family ; living specimens of Carelia are now very 

 rare, but at some period in the history of Kauai they were exceed- 

 ingly abundant. The alluvial deposits near the coast portions of 

 the island, contain multitudes of these shells in a semi-fossil state, 

 which have been washed from the mountains by the freshets of ages 

 past. The small neighboring island of Niihau also has a single 

 species of Carelia found in sand and mud deposits ; no living speci- 

 mens are found there now." 



" Hawaii. This island embraces within its bounds two-thirds of 

 the total area of the whole group. It is also supposed to be the most 

 recently formed of the islands. The volcanic forces are still at work 

 here. The extensive forests are as well adapted for the support of 

 AchatineUa, as those of any of the other islands, but it furnishes 

 only a single arboreal species, and five terrestrial. The arboreal 

 species is A. physa; it was first described by Dr. Newcomb in the 

 Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London in 1853. In a sub- 

 sequent number of the same Journal, Mr. Wm. H. Pease refers to 

 this same shell as a "species rarely met with on the mountains of 

 Hawaii." The centre of production is the Kohala range of moun- 

 tains, notably the most ancient portion of the island ; and it exists 

 there now in unparalled abundance. During a recent visit to the lo- 

 cality in a few minutes I collected several hundred specimens, picking 

 them from trees and low bushes as rapidly as one would gather huckle- 

 berries from a prolific field. The shell appears to be slowly migra- 

 ting into the adjoining districts of Hamakua and Kona, and assu- 

 ming new shapes and varieties of coloring. One of these varieties 

 in our cabinet is almost worthy of assignment as a new species. The 

 conchologist of a few centuries hence will no doubt be naming A chati- 

 nella from the difterent districts of Hawaii of manifold forms and 

 gaudy colors, which have developed through the mysterious pro- 

 cessses of evolution from the humble A. physa of the Kohala Moun- 

 tains." 



" The discovery of so large a number of land shells of the same 

 genus within limited island areas was unprecedented, and at once 

 induced the belief that the " completion of a collection of the genus 

 had been sealed," this is a mistake. The homes of AchatineUa 



