264 Richard Edmond's Notice of Land-shells. 



dom met with in the \Wmg state in the west of Cornwall; and it was 

 remarked by the Author of the Cornish Fauna., that " should fur- 

 ther research shew they are of frequent occurrence in other parts of the 

 Towans, we must come to the conclusion that they were once abundant 

 in Cornwall but are now gradually becoming extinct in this locality." 

 To ascertain the fact, I again went thither last summer with my 

 nephew and two other young conchologists ; and in the short space 

 of two hours we picked up (amongst numerous other species) hun- 

 dreds of these little shells in difterent parts of the sands, at depths 

 varying from 1 foot to 30 : they appeared almost as numerous, and 

 as generally distributed throughout the hillocks, beneath the surface, 

 as any species we saw. The Zua lubrica and some species of Pupa 

 were also very abundant, particularly the Pupa marginata. We had 

 not leisure to examine the surface for living individuals of any of the 

 smaller species ; but amongst the larger, we observed the Helix as- 

 persa, virgata, ericetorum, caperata, and fusca, and the Bulimus 

 acutus. 



The exuvi<B of the Helix pulchella we found also in the sand-hills 

 of Whitesand Bay, and in those near Gunwalloe and Mullion in 

 Mounts Bay ; tliey. ai-e abundant, too, in the sand-hills of Gorran, 

 on the southern coast of East Cornwall ; where also many living spe- 

 cimens have been obsefvfed- on the surface. The last-mentioned sand- 

 hills have been frequently visited by Mr Peach, to whom fossil geo- 

 logy is so much indebted ; and his observations on them, at the last 

 meeting of this Society, confirm the hypothesis suggested in my for- 

 mer Paper respecting the origin of our sand-hillocks. 



The following is a list of the land-shells which we found last sum- 

 mer beneath the surface of the Phillack Towans ; to which is added 

 the Zonites pygmaus that we found in the Whitesand Bay Towans. 

 Specimens of these 27 species are deposited at the Museum of the 

 Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, with the excep- 

 tion of the Conovtdus bidentatus, which was accidentally lost after 

 being brought home. Those marked with asterisks are not now 

 found in the living state within ten miles of Penzance. — 



Bulimus acutus. Helix virgata. 



obscurus. 



Carychium minimum. 

 Clausilia biplicata. 

 Conovulus bidentatus. 



denticulatus. 



Helix aspersa. 



-; caperata. 



ericetorum. 



fulva.* 



fusca. 



hortensis. 



nemoralis. 



pulchella. 



Penzance, 6tli October 1818. 



Pupa Anglica. 



marginata.* 



umbilicata. 



Vertigo edentula. 



palustris.* 



pygmsea.* 



Vitrina pellucida. 

 Zonites alliarius. 



cellarius. 



nitidulus. 



pygmseus.* 



rotundatus. 



