LAND AND FRESH-WATER MOLLUSCA OF PALESTINE. 11 
most peculiar and interesting Helix in Palestine, and is found only 
sparingly in very restricted localities in the Highlands West and 
South-west of the Dead Sea.” It is a shell not unlike one of our 
British marine Z'rochi, having a sharp apex and a beautifully 
granulated exterior. Bourguinat erroneously identified it with 
H. despreauxit from the Canaries. Unfortunately this specimen 
was the only one of its kind I was able to secure. 
Leaving the Dead Sea Valley, one ascends by means of rocky 
terraces and bare precipitous slopes to the Central Highlands of 
Judea and Samaria. Almost the whole Southern portion of Judea 
is of Cretaceous limestone, and thus forms a natural home of 
terrestrial mollusca. The sides of the hills are everywhere per- 
forated with crevices and caves. and in such holes one finds in 
abundance the peculiar shell-types for which Palestine is famous. 
* The same variety,” says Tristram, ‘‘ marks the molluscan fauna as 
is observable in the other branches of Syrian animal life. There 
are, however, fewer exceptions to its general character as a part of 
the Mediterranean basin, and fewer traces of the admixture of 
African and Indian forms.” 
Between Jerusalem and Hebron, the chalky hills afford a good 
field for conchological work, but as one goes northwards shells 
are not so abundant. Specially numerous, however, is the large 
and handsome Helix cesareana, Parr., widely distributed, and 
easily recognisable from its beautiful markings. Several specimens 
I brought home alive, and one—from the ruined temple at Shiloh 
—is still prolonging his existence in a glass fern-case at the 
Glasgow University Hunterian Museum. JZ. prasinata, Roth—a 
species which Tristram did not come across—was obtained from 
Bab-el-wady, Dothan, and Nazareth ; H. berytensis, Fér., on Mount 
Tabor ; H. cavata, Mouss., on Mount Ebal and at Shiloh ; 
H, syriaca, Ehrenb., almost everywhere in abundance, from 
Maarath near Hebron in the south, to Cana of Galilee in the 
north, on the walls of Jerusalem, and even inside the (supposed) 
tomb of Christ ; H. cespitwm, Drap., on the hill Calvary, at 
Samaria, Dothan, Mount Tabor, and Nazareth where it was most 
abundant among ploughed fields; 4. pisana, Miill., only on the 
maritime belt at Jaffa ; H. cariosa, Oliv., on Mount Ebal and at 
Nazareth ; the beautiful flattened H. spiviplana, Oliv.—very 
fragile when young—at Solomon’s Pools, the Garden of Calvary, 
