LAND- AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCS etc. i 
NOTE XVIIL 
THE LAND- AND FRESHWATER-MOLLUSCS OF 
THE DUTCH WEST-INDIAN ISLANDS 
BY 
Dr. J. H. VERNHOUT. 
As I stated in my paper on the non-marine Molluscs of 
Surinam (p. 1 of this volume), our knowledge of the 
Molluse-fauna of the Dutch colonies in America is only 
very little. In that paper I exposed all that is known, up 
to the present time, of the non-marine shell-bearing molluscs 
of Surinam; at present I will do the same with regard to 
the other Dutch colony in America, viz. the colony of Curacao. 
This colony consists of two groups of small islands, all 
placed under one Governor, residing in the principal island 
Curacao, which has given its name to the whole colony. 
One group, near the coast of Venezuela, consists of the 
islands Aruba, Curacao, Little Curacao, Bonaire and Little 
Bonaire. The other group, situated in the northern part 
of the chain of the Lesser Antilles, comprises the small 
islands St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Martin; the latter only 
partly, viz. the south of the island, the northern part 
belonging to France. 
When I said that very little is known about the land- 
and freshwater mollusean fauna of our West-Indian islands, 
I ought to have made an exception for St. Martin. In his 
paper on land- and freshwater-molluses of Guadeloupe and 
its dependencies (Journ. de Conch. 38, p. 19), H. Mazé 
gives a catalogue of the land- and freshwater-molluses of 
St. Martin, with carefully stated localities. He enumerates 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXVI. 
12 
