Jan., 1906,] Land and Fresh Water Mollusca. 449 



A FEW GENERAL NOTES AND REMARKS WITH RESPECT 

 TO THE LAND AND FRESH WATER MOLLUSCA.* 



V. Sterki. 



A friend of mine, lover and observer of nature, has told me 

 repeatedly that "forty or fifty years ago, snails were plenty, 

 large and beautiful; now you hardly ever see any." Even during 

 the last 22 years (of my collecting), I have noticed a change for 

 the worse. Several species and forms have disappeared at cer- 

 tain places, or become scarcer. The same is true, probably, 

 over most of the state. Owing to deforestation and culti- 

 vation, the sheltering places have become more scarce and, 

 what counts more, the atmosphere as well as the soil is less 

 humid and is unsuitable for a large part of molluscan life. (It may 

 be mentioned that the same man states that e. g. "huckleber- 

 ries" have become scarcer and smaller.) 



Still worse is it with fresh water mollusca. Springs are disap- 

 pearing, runs and creeks are dry during a large part of the 

 summer, rivers come to their lowest stages, when sun-heat kills 

 the animals even where still under a few inches of water, which 

 in itself becomes of poor quality. At many places the banks are 

 denuded of trees and undergrowth, and protection from shade is 

 cut off. 



Another factor towards the same end, is the unrestricted 

 discharge of all kinds of refuse and contamination from factories 

 and towns into the rivers and creeks, doubly detrimental with 

 low water. Mr. Geo. H. Clapp has stated, some years ago, that 

 for eighty miles below Pittsburg, hardly a living mussel, or 

 other mollusk could be found in the Ohio River. The same 

 conditions I found at Wheeling: the bottom was covered with a 

 muddy, ferruginous deposit; a very few dead mussel shells of 

 depauperate form were found, but not a living animal or plant. 

 Destruction of life in our "great and beatuiful river" will go on 

 and on, if radical measures are not resorted to for " amendment." 

 Some other rivers, or parts of them, are still in a better condi- 

 tion, but almost everywhere the effects of the causes mentioned 

 are noticeable and becoming more so from year to year. As 

 an example on a smaller scale, I cite the eastern branch of the 

 Tuscarawas river, running southeast to Warwick: it is a 

 drearv, black, barren mud-ditch, in which no fish or other 

 animal can live, owing to the refuse of factories, principally at 

 Barberton. 



Students of other groups of animals have, no doubt, to tell 

 the same tale, especially the ichthyologists. The wealth of fish 

 which was in our rivers, and still might be in a large measure, is 



* Presented before the Cincinnati meeting, Ohio St. Acad, of Sci., Dec. 2, 1905. 



