^"189^'] procep:dings of the national museum. 369 



mer .sleep' arc rcjnarkablc lor tlu;ir tiuiacity ol" liCc; and uuiucrous in- 

 stances have been recorded ol'theii- importation from distant countries 

 in a livinjj^ state. In June, isr)(>, it living' pond mussel Avas sent to Mr. 

 (iray.from Australia, wliicli had been more tlniii a- year out of" water. 

 It was aliv<' four luindred and ninety-eight days after it was taken 

 from the pond, an<l in the interim had been only twice for ai few hours 

 in water, to see if it was alive. 



"The pond snails (A w;>u//rtr/Vr) have been found alive in loj>s of ma- 

 hooany from llonduias (Mr. I^ickerinjf), and M. Caillaud carried some 

 from I'ij^ypt to Paris, packed in sawdust. Indeed, it is not easy to 

 ascertain the limit of their endurance; for Mr. Laidlay having [)la(;ed 

 a nund)er in a drawer for this purpose, found them alive after five 

 years, altlnmgh in the warm climate ol' ('alcntta. The Cych)stomas, 

 whi(;h are also operculated, are well known to survive imprisonments 

 of many months; but in the ordinary land snails such cases are more 

 remarkabh'. Home of the large tropical liulimi, brought by Lieut, 

 (iraves from Valparaiso, reviv(ul after being i)acked, some for thirteen, 

 others for twenty months. In 1HI<) Mi-. Pickering received from Mr. 

 Wollaston a basketful of Madeira, smiils (of twenty or thirty different 

 s])ecies), threefburthsof which proved to be alive a Iter several months' 

 confinement, including a sea voyage. Mr. Wollaston has himself told 

 us that specimens of two Madeiia snails {Helix papilio and tectiformis) 

 survived a fast and imprisonment in pillboxes of two years and a half, 

 and that a large number of tlu; small Helix tnrrieula, brought to Eng- 

 land at the same time, were all living after having been inclosed in a 

 dry bag for a, year and a half." 



THE AGENCY OF THE WINDS. 



The distribution of plants through the agency of the winds, by 

 means of which the seeds are<lispersed and borne directly or indirectly 

 to great distances, has been recognized for years and years, while the 

 same distributive factor as operating in the dissemination of animal 

 life has scarcely attracted attention or received the recognition it de- 

 serves. Showers of "sulphur " h-stve frequently been reported at a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles or more to the westward of the Atlantic seaboard 

 where the yellow pollen of the pines standing in the barrens of New 

 Jersey has fallen and been deposited, in many places, to a perceptible 

 depth. Showers of dust or sand from the desert of Southern Califor- 

 nia are sw(;j>t northerly or westerly foi- great distances, first carried to 

 a high altitude by theasc(5nding column of heated air, and the desert 

 sands of Sahara are sometimes lifted by similar means and carried 

 northward from Africa across the Mediterranean. 



Scpiids and lishes, iidiabitants of the sea, that have been carried up 



by waters]H)uts are borne landward by storm winds or gales, and fall 



to the earth in distant i)la(;es, to the astonishment of the intelligent as 



well as the sui)erstitious, and the cyclone, so called, or hurricane of the 



Proc. N. M. \):\ 24 



