CHAPTER XVI. 



LAND AND FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 



DURING my numerous excursions in these islands, I had in the 

 majority of instances to follow up the stream-courses in 

 order to examine their geological structui^e. I had therefore good 

 opportunities in these regions of making a collection of the 

 fresh- water shells, which, together with the land shells I 

 collected, formed a total of between sixty and seventy species, 

 amongst which there were 11 new species and at least 5 new 

 varieties, whilst about 14 would appear to have been never previously 

 recorded from the Solomon Islands, and there were in addition 

 several from new localities in the group. The collection was sent 

 to tlie British Museum and was examined and described by Mr. E. 

 Smith, to whose paper on the subject^ I am indebted for my 

 acquaintance with the shells in question, and through whose kind- 

 ness I have been thus enabled to supplement my other observations 

 in these islands. A list of the shells with the descriptions of the 

 new species is given on page 344. For its size, my collection pre- 

 sented a large amount of novelty, coming as it did from a region the 

 land and fresh-water shells of which were previously considered to 

 be fairly known. There can be no doubt, however, that in the 

 Solomon Islands the conch ologist has much work that remains to be 

 done. Not only are the higher regions of the larger islands, entirely 

 unexplored, but it would appear from the collections made up to 

 the present date in tiiis large group, that particular species may be 

 not only confined to a special sub-group of islands but may be re- 

 stricted to a single islalid, and that other species more widely 

 distributed through the group may be represented in each island 

 and in different districts of the larger islands by different varieties. 



1 " On a collection of .shells from the Solomon Islands " by Edgar A.~ Smith. (Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society: June 2nd, 1885.) This paper is illustrated with two coloured 

 olates of the new shells. 



