187 



nelix pulchella and Zua lubrica were only obtained in the condi- 

 tion of " dead shells" from the aliuviai plains of Iskardo and Kash- 



mir. 



The Pupa and Bulimus candelaris, Limncea auricularia and Val- 

 vata piscinalis, were found both recent and subfossil. 



LimncBū auricularia occurred in prodigious abundance in the aliu- 

 viai clay around the salt-lake of Thogji, at the height of 150 feet 

 above its present level. There are no longer any living shell-fish in 

 its waters, and Dr. Thomson remarks, " it may fairly be inferred 

 tbat the lake was quite fresh at the time when it was inhabited by 

 Limnaa." The increase of the height of the surface of the water 

 to the small amount of 150 feet, appears to have admitted of its 

 discharging its waters along the course of an open valley into one of 

 the tributaries of the Zamkar river (p. 173). 



Everywhere to the northward of Tibet, from the Arai sea to 

 Chinese Tartary, is a country of small salt-lakes having no outlet ; 

 and this region divides Northern India from the Siberian steppes, in 

 which land and freshwater shells of Germante species are known to 



occur. 



■Westward, however, the rangės of the Hindoo Koosh are prolonged 

 through Persia to the Caucasus, and form a continuous route to the 

 Lusitanian region. 



Since the shells which have been mentioned as English species 

 occurring in Tibet, are also common to the South of Europe, they 

 are rather to be regarded as Lusitanian than Germanio species. 



The land species (Zua, Helix, Helieella and Succinea) are, how- 

 ever, amongst the most ancient inhabitants of this island, being found 

 in the newer-pliocene deposits of the Thames valley, associated with 

 the šame Valvata and the šame species of Cyrena, and vyith remains 

 of an Elephant {E. mendionalis) and a Rhinoceros (R. leptorhinus), 

 VFhich are no t only extinct, but were succeeded by other races of 

 the šame animals {Elephas primigenius and Rhinoceros tichorhinus), 

 before they finally disappeared from this portion of the globė. 



If,. therefore, the small land shells of our newer tertiaries originally 

 migrated into this country from the East, we mušt ascribe to their 

 occupancy of the lofty plains of Kashmir and Tibet a very high 

 antiquity compared with any of the monuments which Man hiraself 

 has reared, even in the country most usually regarded as the cradle 

 of his race. 



2. On a Whale of the Genus Physalus, Gray, captured in 

 Orkney. By Robert Heddle. 



(Mammalia, PI. XLIV. XLV.) 



A "Whale of the genus Physalus of Dr. Gray was stranded on the 

 small island of Laman or Lambholm in Orkney on the 9th of March 

 ultimo. 



