MADEIRAN GROUP. 127 



Sancto abimdat, necnon minus copiose prope Cani^al Maderge : 

 atque in summo etiam Desertse Australis, semifossUis invenitur. 



The singular little H. pcmpercula, which occurs also in the 

 Azorean and Canarian archipelagos, is locally abundant in the 

 Madeiran Group, — though less general in Madeira proper than 

 elsewhere ; indeed in this latter island I am not aware that it 

 has been observed hitherto except on the Ponta de Sao Laurenpo 

 (where it was first detected by Mr. Lowe in 1827, and where it 

 has recently been found by Dr. Grabham on the Ilheo de Fora) 

 and about Sta. Cruz and Caniyo, though the Baron Paiva cites 

 it likewise from Porto Moniz. But in Porto Santo, as well as 

 on the immediately adjacent rocks, it swarms, ascending more- 

 over to a tolerable elevation ; and on the whole three Desertas 

 I have myself met with it, though it does not appear to be very 

 common on any of them. 



In a general sense, however, the H. paupercula is emi- 

 nently a species which is found in low, rocky, and calcareous 

 places near the coast, —where it often exists in company with 

 the H. pisana and lenticula, the Buliynus ventricosus, &c. ; 

 and it is easy, therefore, to understand how liable to accidental 

 transportation it might occasionally become, — a consideration 

 which may perhaps account for its appearance in the equally 

 Portuguese islands of the Azores, which mast have been long 

 subject to intercommunication with Madeira. At the Canaries 

 it has been observed only in Lauzarote, in the extreme east of 

 that archipelago, where it was first found by M. Hartung, and 

 afterwards by Mr. Lowe ; but it is not difficult to conceive how 

 some unsuspected method of dispersion may possibly have con- 

 veyed it even there, — ordinary fishing-boats, and ballast, being 

 amongst the first means which suggest themselves. But, be 

 this as it may, in at all events the Madeiran Grroup the H. 

 paupercula appears manifestly to have been aboriginal. Mr. 

 Watson speaks of it as ' recently introduced ' at the Canaries, 

 but I am not aware that there is any positive evidence for that 

 conclusion. 



In a subfossil condition the H. paupercula is rather plen- 

 tiful in Porto Santo, particularly at the Zimbral d'Areia and 

 (though less so) on the Campo de Baixo ; but in the Canifal 

 deposits of Madeira proper it is decidedly scarce, and still rarer 

 in those on the summit of the Southern Deserta, — where it was 

 nevertheless found by Mr. Lowe and myself, during June of 

 1855. 



It is surprising to me that Mr. Watson [Journ. de Conch. 

 230; 1876) should have felt any doubt whatever concerning the 

 right of this curious little Helix to be regarded, when occurring 

 in the calcareous beds, as genuinely subfossilized ; for although 



