100 THE NAUTILUS. 
NOTES ON COLLECTING SHELLS IN CHINA. 
BY JOHN B. HENDERSON. 
When I saw Mr. Schmacker’s splendid collection of Chinese 
mollusks in Shanghai, and looked over Pére Heude’s Unios at Sic- 
away, I was laying the foundation for a bitter disappointment when 
I took to the field myself. The great alluvial plains extending from 
Peking and the Gulf of Pechelli on the north to Shanghai and the 
‘lower Yangtsze on the south, are not particularly rich in species. 
My good friend, Mr. Schmacker assured me that “the hills” fairly 
trembled with molluscan life; but the hills were far away, the sea- 
son unfavorable, so I continued my search along the muddy banks of 
the rivers and theslimy waters of the canals near Shanghai, with from 
fair to poor success, it being then too cold (January) for land shells. 
The bulk of Chinese Unios that so closely resemble our Missis- 
sippi forms, live almost entirely in the upper waters of the great 
rivers and their tributaries that flow through the high lands of the 
interior provinces. In the neighborhood of Shanghai, Unio mur- 
chisonianus and Anodonta woodiana were the only naiads I met 
with, but these were generally abundant. Corbiculas and the two 
Viviparas, chinensis Bens. and quadrata Bens. are plentiful in the 
eanals. I secured the services of one, Ah Sin, a bland and suave 
celestial, to collect for me. Ah Sin brought me, day by day, num- 
bers of Cyclina sinensis wrapped in endless papers, that he assured 
me were rare and highly desirable Unios from the inaccessible 
Thibetan frontier. So Ah Sin proved a failure. 
Upon a three days’ journey in a house-boat from Tientsin to 
Tungehow (on the Pei-Ho River), I did not observe a single shell 
of any kind. From Tungchow to Peking, about 15 miles, I 
gathered quantities of Vivipara, Unio and Corbicula in the canal, 
and in the dried pools by the roadside many Limnea. The walls of 
Peking swarm with Cathaica pyrrhozena ; | even gathered a number 
of them in my bed-room, where they clung to the ceiling. This 
species has a wide distribution throughout China, as well as Bith- 
inia striatula Bens. which I gathered in the canals about Tientsin. 
Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to try the good marine col- 
lecting of the southern China coast, my only attempts for marines 
being in the immediate vicinity of Shanghai and at Che Foo and 
Taku on the Gulf of Pechelli in the north. The fauna of this 
region is not particularly interesting, consisting only of a limited 
