THE NAUTILUS. 79 



Dr. Wm. H. Dall in his work on Land and Fresh-water Moll 

 gives Labrador, but the exact locality is not recorded. Only the 

 single specimen referred to by Morcb has been found in Greenland. 

 Dr. Dall thinks that it is doubtless an accidental importation. In 

 Iceland the species still exists, as will be seen from the following 

 letter from Mr. Gratacap : " I found hortensis this last summer in 

 Iceland, where it assumes a very dark tint, with the longitudinal 

 yellow threads strongly marked and the revolving dark bands re- 

 duced to one. They were fragile and very scarce. I have only three 

 from Seydisfiord, on the east coast." 



The origin of this species in America has been the subject of con- 

 siderable discussion. Amos Binney, in describing subghbosa, and 

 comparing it with the European hortensis, and the possibility of its 

 being introduced by commerce, says : " It would be difficult, how- 

 ever, to account for their inhabiting the barren and retired situations 

 at the extremity of Cape Cod, and the rocky islands in the neighbor- 

 hood of Cape Ann, while in the intermediate country they are not 

 found." Later (1851) he believed its origin in this country to be 

 due to commercial intercourse with Europe. Prof. Edw. 8. Morse 

 in 1864 {Joe. cit.) asks this question : " If this species is really iden- 

 tical with the Tachea hortensis of Europe, it seems a little singular 

 that here it should only be found on islands frequently barren and 

 far out from the land, * * while in the old country they become a 

 nuisance in gardens." This is only another way of saying tliat if this 

 species was introduced by commerce, why do we not find it in the 

 gardens of Portland, Salem and Boston, instead of on the barren 

 islands and exposed headlands ? 



W. G. Binney has always questioned its introduction by commerce, 

 and later (1890) informs Prof. Cockerell (Nautilus, III, 139) 

 that he regards the species as naturally present in America, an 

 opinion in which Prof. Cockerell also concurs and refutes the tli 

 " that the hardy Norsemen of old may have carried the Bnails about 

 for food, and so imported it where they went." It Beeme too bad to 

 shatter this fabulous, though pertinent story, before the poet has had 

 a chance to versify. Dr. Pilsbry did not, however, coincide with 

 Prof. Cockerell's idea that it is a native American (see Nautilus, 

 IV, 24, 1890), and later in the Manual of Conchology (IX. p. 321, 

 1894), says : " //. hortensis inhabits many of the islands off the New 



1 Harriman Alaska Expedition, XIII, p. 20, 1905. 



