IV.] INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii 



occupations are not suited either to every time^ or to 

 every age or place : these studies, however, foster our 

 earher years and impart pleasure to our declining ones ; 

 they adorn our prosperity, and afford a refuge and solace 

 in adversity ; they delight us at home, but do not hinder 

 us in the discharge of our public duties ; they are our 

 companions in the evening, abroad, and in the country "^/^ 

 We are, I fear, too prone to indulge in a patriotic 

 boast, that our naturalists are more painstaking and 

 numerous than those of other nations ; but, with regard 

 to conchology, I must admit that we are far excelled by 

 the French. Moquin-Tandon stands preeminent in the 

 elucidation of the anatomy, physiology, and habits of his 

 native land and freshwater Mollusca ; and the number 

 of his countrymen to whose works on the subject of con- 

 chology he has referred in his admirable ' Histoire Natu- 

 relle des MoUusques terrestres et fluviatiles de France ^ 

 is no less than 168. Can we show any work at all equal 

 to his as regards knowledge or labour on our own land 

 and freshwater Mollusca, or one-half of the above num- 

 ber as British writers on conchology, from Lister to 

 the present time? It is true that the marine fauna 

 of France has not been studied with equal assiduity and 

 success ; but our superiority in this respect may be owing 

 to the greater extent and variety of sea-coast which we 

 possess, as well as to our habits as a maritime people, 

 evidenced by the fleet of yachts and pleasure-boats which 

 crowd many of our harbours. In the thinly populated 

 and comparatively isolated region of Scandinavia, but 

 where opportunities of marine investigation are peculiarly 

 favourable, we find a host of able and zealous concholo- 

 gists (such as Nilsson, Loven, Sars, Hisinger, Steen- 

 strup, Oersted, MoUer, Morch, Asbjornsen,Malm, Torell, 

 * CicerOj Or. pro Ar^^h. poet. (ed. Anth.) p. 158. 



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