20 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys's Notes on Swiss Mollusca, 



V. — Notes on Swiss Mollusca. 

 By J. GwYN Jeffreys, Esq., F.R.S. 



Having spent the last summer and autumn with my family at 

 Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva, during which period I col- 

 lected with some assiduity the land and freshwater shells in 

 that district, and also made occasional excursions, with the 

 same object, to the adjoining Cantons of the Valais and Geneva 

 (thus embracing in my circuit the highest Alps and lowest 

 valleys in Switzerland), I am induced to think that a notice of 

 some hitherto unrecorded localities which thus occurred to me 

 may be interesting to those who have studied this branch 

 of natural history ; and more especially if considered with regard 

 to the geographical distribution of animals, a subject which has 

 of late years much engrossed the attention of naturalists. 



In making this communication, I must, in the first place, 

 acknowledge the great obligation I feel to my kind and hospi- 

 table friend, M. de Charpentier of Devens, near Bex, who not 

 only gave me free and frequent access to his fine collection of 

 land and freshwater shells, but furnished me with many valu- 

 able notes (of which I will here, with his permission, avail 

 myself) by way of supplement to his ''Catalogue des Mol- 

 lusques Terrestres et Fluviatiles de la Suisse," which forms part 

 of the Transactions of the Helvetic Society, published at Neuf- 

 ch^tel in 1837. No one can appreciate more highly than 

 myself the discrimination and accuracy of this celebrated 

 savant, as well as his disinclination to increase the already too 

 numerous list of so-called species. I had also the pleasure of 

 forming an agreeable, but transient, acquaintance with the Abbe 

 Stabile, who published at Lugano in 1845 a Catalogue of the 

 Land and Freshwater Shells of that district. With these two 

 exceptions, I am not aware that Switzerland now possesses any 

 native conchologist ; although the country has been for a period 

 of between thirty and forty years indefatigably explored by 

 Studer, Monnard, Venetz, Mousson, Thomas, Charpentier, and 

 others in search of Mollusca. 



The immediate vicinity of Lausanne, where I was located, 

 consists of an irregular and comparatively low range of hills 

 called the Jorat (the highest of which, Le Pelerin, is 2148 feet 

 above the lake, and 3300 feet above the sea-level), and belongs 

 to a geological formation termed "Molasse" (a soft and friable 

 sandstone of the carboniferous series), and it presents very few 

 characteristic forms of Mollusca. Indeed if it were not for the 

 diiferent scenery and mode of cultivating the land, a concho- 

 logist might almost fancy himself to be in one of the midland 

 counties of England. The southern flanks of the Jura also 

 yielded many species which are common on our own mountain 



