TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
Aatural Bistorn Society of Glasgow. 
Remarks on some of the Land and Fresh-water Mollusca 
of Palestine. By G. A. Franz Kyieut, M.A. 
[Read 26th December, 1893. ] 
Ir has occurred to me that a few remarks on the mollusca of 
Palestine—a country which I visited during 1892—might not be 
without interest to the members of this Society. The land itself 
is, of course, to us of perennial interest as the scene of the most 
sacred events in the history of our earth, and it is probably in 
consequence of this that its fauna and flora have, in comparison 
with those of other lands, been carefully studied. 
So far as the shells of Western Palestine are concerned, the 
ground has been tolerably well worked. Ferussac, Ehrenberg, 
Olivier, Boisnier, Bourguinat, Roth, and Lortet have all given us 
their contributions to the elucidation of the subject; but it was 
reserved for Canon Tristram, of Durham, to make the most 
exhaustive conchological survey, and to complete the labours of 
his predecessors. Since the publication of his Fawna and Flora 
of Western Palestine, however, M. Locard, of Lyons, has issued a 
sumptuous work on the Flwviatile Mollusca of the Jordan System 
in which he makes large additions to previous records. Tristram 
and Locard, therefore, are the standard authorities on the subject. 
To one who visits Palestine with a “ conchological ” eye, it is a 
matter of profound astonishment that in scripture there are so very 
few references to the mollusca. The Hebrews were not a maritime 
B 
