Mr. S. P. Woodward 07i the Shells of Kashmir and Tibet. 409 



Paludina Bengalensis, var. Jamu hills, Kashmir. 

 *Valvata piscinalis {subfossil). Kashmir; Tsoral Lake, Tibet. 

 *Cyrena Jinminalis, Mull. * (Cashmiriensis, Dh.). Avantipura, 

 Kashmir. 



Cijclas (Pisidium), sp., subfossil. Thogji Lake, Tibet. 



These specimens have been submitted to the examination of Mr, 

 "W. H. Benson, Avho is unsurpassed in his critical acquaintance with 

 Indian shells, and especially those of the Western Himalaya. 



Helix pulcheUa and Ziia lubrica were only obtained in the condi- 

 tion of " dead shells" from the alluvial plains of Iskardo and Kash- 

 mir. 



The Pupa and Balimus candelaris, Limncea auricularia and Val- 

 vata piscinalis, were found both recent and subfossil. 



Limncea auricularia occurred in prodigious abundance in the allu- 

 vial clay around the salt-lake of Thogji, at the height of 150 feet 

 above its present level. There are no longer any living shell-fish in 

 its waters, and Dr. Thomson remarks, " it may fairly be inferred 

 that the lake was quite fresh at the time when it was inhabited by 

 Limncea." The increase of the height of the surface of the water 

 to the small amount of 150 feet, appears to have admitted of its 

 discharging its waters along the course of an open valley into one of 

 the tributaries of the Zamkar river (p. 1/3). 



Everywhere to the northward of Tibet, from the Aral Sea to 

 Chinese Tartary, is a country of small salt-lakes having no outlet ; 

 and this region divides Northern India from the Siberian steppes, in 

 which land and freshwater shells of Germanic species are known to 

 occur. 



Westward, however, the ranges of the Hindoo Koosh are prolonged 

 through Persia to the Caucasus, and form a continuous route to the 

 Lusitanian region. 



Since the shells which have been mentioned as English species 

 occurring in Tibet, are also common to the South of Europe, they 

 are rather to be regarded as Lusitanian than Germanic species. 



The land species {Zua, Helix, Helicella and Snccinea) are, how- 

 ever, amongst the most ancient inhabitants of this island, being found 

 in the newer-pliocene deposits of the Thames valley, associated with 

 the same Falvata and the same species of Cyrena, and with remains 

 of an Elephant {E. meridionalis) and a Ehinoceros (72. leptorhiniis), 

 which are not only extinct, but were succeeded by other races of 

 the same animals {Elephas primigenius and Bhinoceros fic/iorhinus), 

 before they finally disappeared from this portion of the globe. 



If, therefore, the small land shells of our newer tertiaries originally 

 migrated into this country from the East, we must ascribe to their 

 occupancy of the lofty plains of Kashmir and Tibet a very high 



* Varieties of this shell are found in Sicily, Palestine, the Nile, and all the 

 rivers of the East. These varieties have been regarded as constituting about 

 twenty distinct species; e. g. C. Euphratica, Bronu; ambigua, Dh. ; Cor, Lam.; 

 consobrina, Caill. ; triangularis, Dh. ; Panormitana, Bivoii, &c. AVlien fossil, 

 it is the C. trigomda, Searles Wood ; C. Gemmellarii, Phi. 



