164 Mr. J. G. Jeffreys on the Marine Testacea 



one-half of thera had been allowed to die of old age or uatrual 

 infirmities, the "balance of power'' might have been deranged, 

 and results which we cannot foresee might have ensued from 

 the redundancy of particular species. Whether the handiwork 

 of modern naturalists and collectors has any effect in altering 

 the relative proportion of species is another question. " Lord, 

 how glorious are thy works : Thy thoughts are very deep ! " 



At Sestri I had the good fortune to meet with a fellow-coun- 

 tryman and brother lawyer (Mr. Thomas Smythe of the Chan- 

 cery Bar), whose taste for science and art made his company 

 very agreeable. 



From Sestri I returned to Genoa and proceeded to Nice, having 

 received a kind invitation from the Chevalier Verany to see him. 

 I there went through and made notes of his collection of shells 

 from that and the Genoese coast. It does not appear certain 

 that Philippi, Risso, Payraudeau, or any other naturalist who 

 has written on the Mediterranean fauna, ever used a dredge 

 or sieve ; the mode which they probably adopted being to search 

 the shores and drift-sand, or to procure the shells from fisher- 

 men and coral- divers. These methods, and especially the last, 

 are obviously not well adapted to ensure the correctness of 

 habitats and localities. M. Verany was, I have reason to believe, 

 frequently deceived in the same way as our Colonel Montagu by 

 the credulity or ignorance of others, and in investigating the 

 question of geographical distribution, such errors frequently 

 cause wTong conclusions. 



From Nice I crossed the Col di Tenda to the Lago Maggiore, 

 and paid a visit to a friend who had a villa on the borders of the 

 Lake at Suna. I w^as much pleased with finding, in consider- 

 able plenty, the cui'ious little snail. Helix [Drepanostoma) Nauti- 

 liformis, and a white variety of it, on the hills in different parts 

 of that district, as well as in the Val d'Anzasca. It has not 

 been yet discovered on this side of the Alps. The animal is a 

 true snail, and has two pairs of horns, with eyes, or their analo- 

 gous organ, on the tips of the upper or longer pair. On the 

 shores and in the shallows of the Lake, I found a species of 

 Limneus or pond-snail, which appears to be the Gulnaria lacus- 

 tris of Leach, in company with L. auricularius, and this induces 

 me to believe that they are different species. Several kinds of 

 Pupa and other land-shells, which had been previously noticed 

 only on the hills which environ the neighboui'ing Lakes of Como 

 and Lugano, also occurred to me. Collecting in these woods 

 was not unattended with some risk, for they swarmed with dif- 

 ferent kinds of snakes. I more than once found, in searching 

 the dead leaves and moss, that my hand was within an uncom- 

 fortable distance of a viper. In the Canero woods I one day 



