REPORT ON THE TESTACEOUS MOLLUSCA. 233 



in regular lines, and partly by means of the experience of 

 fishermen. 



When information of this kind is accessible, the Com- 

 mittee or volunteers can select localities where the conditions 

 of habitat can be carefully observed, and the assemblage of 

 animals and their life histories definitely studied on the scale 

 at which the Committee aims. If the naturalists' investi- 

 gation is to assume any real completeness, such researches 

 must in many cases moreover be repeated, not only month 

 after month, but at dawn, at noon, at sunset, and at 

 midnight. 



For really effective work of the kind they contemplate, the 

 Committee cannot long dispense with the employment of a 

 special steamer and trained assistance. It is to be hoped that 

 the narrative of what they have already done may help to 

 bring about such an extension of their apparatus. As 

 necessary a development must eventually be the establish- 

 ment of a laboratory. 



With regard to the Testaceous Mollusca, the actual 

 experience of the Committee has been so slight that they can 

 only offer a few memoranda rather than a detailed report. 



The observations hitherto made have been only experi- 

 mental, and, it is only too true that, except at and near 

 the shore at Hilbre Island, if there are any spots between 

 Formby Point and Puffin Island where Molluscs flourish, 

 the Committee have not yet been fortunate enough to find 

 them. A certain assemblage of dead shells, with a few 

 living ones, was observed whenever the dredge was used, 

 but the number of species, and indeed that of specimens, 

 has been disappointing so far. 



In what follows there has been no attempt to record the 

 name of every species of which a dead shell was found (except 



