22 ('luaiicrhj Juarnal of Gonchology. 



A CATALOGUE OF THE LAND AND FEESHWATER 

 MOLLUSCA OF NORTHUMBERLAND and DURHAM. 



By W. D. SUTTON. 

 Ill compiling this catalogue, which comprises to a considerable 

 extent the records of locality, the relative abundance or scarcity, and 

 other remarks respecting the fauna of this district, I have been very 

 materially assisted by reference to a " Catalogue of the Land and 

 Freshwater Mollusca of the Vicinity of Newcastle," by the late 

 Joshua Alder, Esq., which was published in the " Natural History 

 Society's Transactions" in 1830, to which a supplement was added in 

 1838. More recently the contributions of Mr. William King, late 

 curator of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Museum, and of Mr. Eichard 

 Howse to the " Annals of Natural History," have illustrated several 

 of our rarer species. Since, however, these contributions were written, 

 now upwards of a quarter of a century has elapsed, and great transfor- 

 mations have taken place in the district, and localities which then 

 existed and were favourite resorts for Conchologists, botanists, and 

 others, have had their rural character entirely changed, and from 

 various causes either have entirely disappeared or have given place to 

 large manufactories, collieries, or similar other industries, such as 

 railway requirements; or as in the case of the extensive series of small 

 lakes, situated at Prestwick Carr, some seven or eight miles distant 

 from Newcastle, and which comprised several hundred acres of 

 swampy, boggy land, these were all doomed to disappear about fifteen 

 years ago by the Commissioners for Reclaiming Waste Lands. Con- 

 sequently about the only locality in the district in which were found 

 Anodonta cycjnea and its varieties, likewise Limncea stagnalis, Limncea 

 palustris, Planorbis corneus, and several other species, can no longer 

 be regarded as available, the district now producing good crops 

 of wheat, oats, and turnips, where formerly peat moss and boggy 

 swamps prevailed. In the inland portion of the two counties, and on 

 the east coast, the surface of the country is a good deal diversified, but 

 upon the whole it is rather too hilly, particularly in the western parts, 

 to be very productive of the land and freshwater mollusca, which are 

 .generally thinly scattered in uj^land and exposed situations. The 

 valleys, however, produce a very considerable number of the land 

 species. These abound most on a limestone formation, and a few 

 species are nearly confined to that description of rock, such, for instance 

 as Clausilia duhia and Clausilia riigosa. The limestone appears to 



