THE NAUTILUS. 69 



Gracious, how the perspiration rolls off a fellow ! Down between the 

 banks, with an August sun overhead, and the steam arising from the 

 rank vegetation, and the sun's rays reflected from the water, we 

 thought of Ferriss digging snails on the mountain tops, and we quit, 

 but we had at least 100 Succineas. 



SHELL COLLECTING NEAR ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



BY FRANK C. BAKElt. 



For the past five years the writer has made annual pilgrimages to 

 Rochester, New York, partly to spend his summer vacation, and partly 

 to get better acquainted with the mollusks which flourish about the 

 '• Flower City." The vicinity of Rochester is peculiarly adapted for 

 molluscan life, owing to the fact that the Niagara limestone out-crops 

 in various places, affording an abundance of lime for the secretion 

 of their shells, which are, therefore, large and fine. 



The Eskers known as the Pinnacle and Cobb's Hill, are my 

 favorite localities, and many fine species have been collected. The 

 former locality is a rounded, dome-shaped hill some 200 feet in 

 height, the slope being from 10 to 30 degrees, well wooded on its 

 summit, with a little ravine between the main hill and a small knoll, 

 and littered by fallen, rotting logs and dead leaves. Helices are here 

 very abundant, such forms as Vitrea arboi'ea, V. indentatu, Omphalina 

 fuliginosa, Gastrodonta intertexta, Pyramidvla alternata, P. striatella, 

 Polygyra albolabris, P. sayii (rare), P. monodon, P. tridentata (many 

 varieties), and Oochlicopa lubrica being readily collected. Cobb's 

 Hill, just across Monroe avenue, yields about the same fauna. 



At a point in the Erie Canal where the waters widen to form a 

 pond, hence called " wide-waters," the fresh water mollusks are 

 numerous, and such species as Limnaa stagnalis (large and fine), L. 

 palustris, L. catascopium, L. desidiosa, Planorbis trivolvis, Physa 

 heterostropha, Plenrocera subulare, Goniobasts livescens, Bythinia 

 tentaculata, Valvata sincera, and V. tricarinata are common. Between 

 Rochester and Pittsford, in the canal, a colony of Vivipara contec. 

 toides has established itself, and a large number of fine specimens 

 may be gathered at any time. When the water is drained from the 



