163 



turned out to be that wonderful and beautiful speck St. JVilkinson- 

 ceanum. He again in Manchester collected more specimens of S. 

 pisum and other species of the family , and, first under the proposed 

 generic name of " Hemicyclostoma," the species were finally placed 

 under the generic name of " Stoastoma" at the suggestion of Dr. 

 A. A. Gould. While Adams vvas still away from me, as I was exa- 

 mining my only specimen of S. TFUMtisonceanum, it dropped from 

 my hand — fortunately on to the floor-cloth, — and I did not recover 

 it till after a fuU hour's careful search. This showed me the folly 

 of being satisfied with the possession of one specimen only, where 

 others might be obtained ; and I determined to make a vigorous 

 search for more. I ransacked ray garden and all round, in vain ; for, 

 as I now conclude, it had been brought there accidentally, per- 

 haps by a bird ; till at lašt I crossed a deep ravine, a streamlet at 

 the bottom of it, and got to one side of what we call " Little Yallahs' 

 Hill," which stands a good half-mile crow-fly distance from my 

 garden ; there I found a spot, a slope on the hill-side, with crumbling 

 fine dirt running, or sifting as it were, down it. There I first fomid 

 Geomelania Greyana (described as Cylindrella Greyana, Contrib. 

 Conch. p. 82, till I made out the operculum of that genus). These 

 were so numerous, and many so broken, that I put handfuls of the 

 fine dirt into a small bag for home examination. The result was, 

 plenty of 8t. JVilkinsonteanum, and other new species at the šame 

 time. 



The plan of coUecting all minute shells, beyond this "bagging" 

 of dirt, is, to have a small zinc or tin tray about 9 inches long and 

 3 wide, with sides turning up all round half an inch high. I put 

 about half a teaspoonful of dirt, such as I have alluded to, into it. 

 Holding the tray at each end, and tilting it the furthest side down- 

 wards, shaking it lightly backwards and forwards, right and left, end 

 to end, causes the dirt to fall and spead somewhat evenly along the 

 outer edge ; then, levelling the tray, a slight jerk from side to side 

 of the tray causes the whole of the dirt to spread pretty evenly over 

 the tray's surface, and exposes every minute object to view, with the 

 aid of strong spectacles or a lens. A pointed wetted camel's-hair 

 brush takes up and may deposit the minute subjects into a pill-box, or 

 other receptacle, for future esamination. The formation of Jamaica 

 being mostly tertiary limestone, out of about a quart of such dirt as 

 this, I have taken dozens and dozens of minute specimens of no less 

 than thirty-one species, besides larger ones, which the naked eye 

 could well see — probably upwards of fifty species from one quart of 

 dirt altogether ! 



I am about to describe sixty-one new species, which, added to 

 those described by Adams, make the totai of eighty belonging to 

 Jamaica. Yet let it not be imagined for one moment that I consider 

 these are all that inhabit the island : on the contrary, I incline to 

 think that that number might be doubled or trebled were the whole 

 land explored. 



I consider that the range of each species is very limited, and that 



