348 NATURAL SCIENCE. December, 



are too "superior " for Mr. Carrington — who think that " the whole- 

 sale formation of collections should be discouraged as much as 

 possible " {Nature Notes, October, 1896). When we find such men as 

 Professor Meldola, Mr. McLachlan, Mr. J. W. Tutt, and Mr. W. F. 

 Kirby all in a tale together, we are not ashamed to be of the 

 company. Let us not misunderstand one another ! Let Science Gossip 

 continue to inculcate the true principles of scientific collecting, let it 

 above all things encourage observation, and discourage petty 

 nomenclatorial propensities, and it will meet with not merely 

 patronising approval, but all possible help, even from the Superior 

 Scientist. 



British Snails. 



Yes ! Mr. Carrington, even the variations of snails may be 

 studied to good effect, as shown by a paper on an early neolithic 

 kitchen-midden and tufaceous deposit at Blashenwell, near Corfe 

 Castle, which Mr. Clement Reid has had published in the Proceedings 

 of the Dorset Field Club, vol. xvii. Twenty species of snails are 

 recorded by Mr. Reid from the tufaceous deposit ; " all species still 

 inhabiting Dorset," and the list is "more striking from the absence 

 of so many of our commonest living species than for anything else." 

 The chief interest is seen in the well marked distinction between Helix 

 nemoralis and Helix hortensis, so marked indeed that Mr. Reid says "no 

 naturalist seeing a large series from Blashenwell, and unacquainted 

 with the variability of the living snails, would for a moment hesitate 

 to say that they were good and well-marked species, belonging merely 

 to the same section of the genus." The following diagnoses are 

 given : — ■ 



H. nemoralis. — Shell large, depressedly globular, amber coloured 

 or yellow, without bands, lip dark. 



H. hortensis. — Shell smaller and more globular than H. nemoralis, 

 whitish, bands five, two narrow above and three broader 

 below, often widened till they become confluent, lip white. 



The difference is not due to deficiency of colour, for, as Mr. Reid says, 

 the dark tipped nemoralis is always amber-coloured or yellow, but 

 entirely without bands, while the smaller white-lipped hortensis is 

 whitish or grey and five banded, only a single specimen out of hundreds 

 having one of the narrow bands missing. The banded nemoralis so 

 common at the present day is wanting at Blashenwell, as are all 

 intermediates or hybrids between the two forms. 



Mr. Reid also calls attention to the fact that land shells are likely 

 to be extremely valuable guides to the age of a deposit, and mentions 

 that he has never seen in any deposit, satisfactorily shown to be older 

 than the Roman invasion, any specimen of the common brown snail 

 of our gardens. Helix aspersa, and he urges archaeologists to collect 

 land snails from the graves in the Downs. 



