NOTES AND QUERIES. 343 



" It is a mistake to suppose that the Romans, when they possessed and 

 inhabited Great Britain, brought this snail with them to indulge their 

 luxurious tastes. In all probability it was not even known to them, because 

 another species (H. lucorum, M tiller), takes its place in Central Italy. 

 H. pomatia has not been found at Wroxeter, or York, or in any other part 

 of England or Wales where the Romans built cities, or had important 

 military stations. Among the debris of an extensive Roman villa dis- 

 covered in Northamptonshire, in which the shells of cockles, oysters, mussels, 

 and whelks abounded, not one of Helix pomatia occurred, although at 

 Woodford, a few miles distant, that species is plentiful in a living state.'' — 

 J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Nature, April 19. 



" I agree with Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys (' Nature,' p. 511) in considering 

 Helix pomatia as indigenous in this country, and not introduced by the 

 Romans. I never found or heard of a single specimen, either living or dead 

 shell, being met with in the neighbourhood of Bath, which the Romans 

 occupied for more than 400 years, though it is found in one or two localities 

 iu the adjoining county of Gloucester, from whence we have specimens 

 in the museum of the Bath Literary Institution." — L. Blomefield (Bath), 

 Nature, April 26. 



" As Helix pomatia appears to be very partial in its distribution in this 

 country, it may be worth while to record the fact that I have met with it ou 

 and near the chalk downs in the neighbourhood of Epsom, and on the chalk 

 downs above the village of Hambledon, in South Bucks ; while Mr. J. E. 

 Halting, in his 'Rambles in Search of Shells' (p. 71), states that it is 

 not uncommoaon the chalk hills in the vicinity of Reigate and Dorking, 

 Mickleham, Boxhill, and in parts of Kent. Forbes and Hanley, in their 

 ' History of British Mollusca,' say " it is entirely confined to the southern 

 counties, living chiefly on cretaceous soils"; but we learn from Mr. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys ('Nature,' vol. xxvii., p. 511) that it is abundant at Woodford, iu 

 Northamptonshire ; and from Mr. Blomefield (' Nature,' vol. xxvii., p. 553) 

 that it occurs sparingly in Gloucestershire, neither of these counties being 

 cretaceous. With regard to its possible introduction into this country by 

 the Romans, we gather from Venables' trustworthy work on the Isle of 

 Wight that Helix pomatia has not been met with in the island, although it 

 was occupied — and probably permanently — by that people ; but H. scalaris, 

 which, according to some malacologists, is a monstrous form of this species, 

 has been found there. Its absence from the Isle of Wight may be said to 

 be somewhat remarkable, seeing that the species extends in the south at 

 least as far as the borders of West Sussex, and that the other British chaik- 

 frequeuting Helicida, H. caperata, H. ericetorum, and H. viryata, are very 

 abundant in the island. Either of two causes may account for its absence 

 from this locality : — it may be a geologically recent importation from its 

 original (?) centre iu France, and has not yet succeeded in navigating the 



