51 



A CLASSSIFIED LIST OF THE HELICOID LAND 

 SHELLS OF ASIA. 



(part II.*) 



By G. K. GUDE, F.Z.S. 



i. THE CHINESE EMPIRE (rontinued.) 



B. TIBET. 



This mysterious country is, conchologically, as in other respects, 

 still practically a terra incognita, chiefly owing to the difficulties which 

 attend travel, and more especially to the absolute prohibition by the 

 Government to Europeans of entering the central parts. Since, in 1845, 

 the two French missionaries, Hue and Gabet, made their famous 

 journey, no European has succeeded in reaching Lhasa. The most 

 recent attempt, in 1901, by the intrepid Swedish explorer. Dr. Sven 

 Hedin, to enter the capital, has again ended in failure, for when within 

 five days' journey from his goal he was turned back by the authorities 

 to the frontier. 



Considerable exploration has, however, been done in the eastern, 

 northern, and western parts by English, French, and Russian travellers, 

 and it is principally to those of the latter nationality that we are in- 

 debted for a glimpse of the molluscan fauna of this region. Foremost 

 among these, ranks the Russian General Prejevalski, who made four 

 expeditions between 1870 and 1885, to the eastern and north western 

 districts. The Russian travellers Potanin, Beresowski, and Obrutschew, 

 the Austrian explorer Loczy, the Hungarian Count Bela Szechenyi, 

 and more recently the German savants Professor Futterer and Dr. 

 Holderer, have all contributed to a partial knowledge of the mollusca 

 of these parts. 



It may be remarked that the physical conditions of a great portion 

 of north-west Tibet do not favour molluscan life, barren, uninhabitable 

 country, interspersed by salt lakes, stretching for hundreds of miles. 



Many of the mollusca originally attributed to Tibet, i.e. those 

 collected near Moupin by the Abbe Armand David, and described by 

 Deshayes, have had to be eliminated from the Tibetan fauna, for the 

 locality named, though ascribed by Deshayes to eastern Tibet, has been 

 shown by Dr. von Mollendorff to be in China (Province of Sze-chuen). 



Some shells collected about Yerkalo and Tse-kou by the Abbe 

 Desgodins and Monseigneur Biet, have been described by Mr. Ancey, 

 who states these localities are in Tibetan territory, and although the 



* See Ante, p. i. 



