THE ALPINE FAUNA. 32! 



the great authority on European land shells, that a 

 uniformity of character marks the Alpine Molluscan 

 fauna (b t i., p. 251). One of the characteristic genera 

 Campylaea often looked upon as a sub-genus of 

 Helix is a group containing somewhat flattened 

 conspicuous snails of large size. These are found 

 everywhere in the Alps, and wherever they occur 

 beyond the confines of these mountains, remarks Dr. 

 Kobelt, their origin from the main stock is easily 

 traced. They have been gathered in the Apen- 

 nines in Sicily, and even beyond the Mediterranean in 

 Algeria. On the Balkan peninsula they occur right 

 down to the most southern point of Greece, but 

 are not met with either in Crete or Asia Minor. 

 One species has been found sub-fossil in Thuringia 

 in Northern Germany. 



Another truly Alpine genus, says Dr. Kobelt, is 

 the operculate Pomatias, which in its geographical 

 distribution offers some interesting modifications from 

 that of Campylaea. Less limited to high elevations, 

 it has spread over a greater part of the plains. This 

 has happened especially in France, while in Germany 

 one species advances almost as far north as Heidel- 

 berg. In other directions also the genus has travelled 

 beyond the limits of range of Campylaea. Pomatias 

 occurs in the Pyrenees and Northern Spain, in 

 Sardinia and Crete, and may, according to the same 

 author, be expected in Asia Minor, although no 

 species has as yet been met with there. In Greece, 



again, it has been observed, and numerous species 



21 



