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CONCHOLOGICAL FIELD-NOTES 

 FROM UPPER SWALEDALE, N.W. YORKSHIRE. 



W. DENISON ROEBUCK, F.L.S., 



Leeds; Hon. Secretary and Recorder to i)ie Coiiclwlogical Society. 



As there do not appear to be any published records of the moUusca 

 of Upper Swaledale, a record of what was obtained during a few 

 days spent in the dale at the end of July 1884, with Gunnerside as 

 headquarters, and a few days in mid-August 1885, with headquarters 

 at the Strands farm-house, a mile lower down the valley, will be of 

 interest. On both these occasions the writer was accompanied by 

 his friend Mr. T. K. Skipwith, to whom, in addition to the pleasure 

 afforded by his companionship, is due considerable assistance in the 

 search for shells. From these two points, as headquarters, the dale 

 was explored upwards by Ivelet, Satron, Muker, Thwaite, and 

 Angram to Keld and Kisdon Force, eight miles, and downwards 

 past Isles Bridge, Low Row, Feetham, Low Whita Bridge, Healaugh, 

 and Reeth to Fremington and Grinton, six miles. One day's 

 expedition was directed up Arkengarthdale, returning across the 

 moors to the Strands, and other places were visited. But molluscs 

 were not the exclusive object of attention, for walks were taken by 

 both members of the expedition in which conchology had to occupy 

 a very insignificant position, and one of us found the excellent trout- 

 fishing which Swale affords very much to his taste, and highly 

 conducive to his enjoyment. The district being a high-lying and 

 submontane one, and the Swale and its principal tributaries swift 

 and turbulent streams, the list includes but two aquatic shells, the 

 ubiquitous Limnaa peregra (strange to say) not being one of them. 

 The slugs number seven and the land shells twenty-six, total thirty-five. 

 The most noticeable deficiencies in the list are Limax maximus 

 (which I am pretty sure I have taken, although I can find no 

 mention of it in my records), Succinea putris and S. elegans, and 

 Helix concinna. There are others which may be expected with more 

 or less confidence to turn up. For instance, Kisdon Woods have 

 scarcely been explored at all, and should be carefully investigated in 

 the hope of discovering such species as Helix fusca, H. aculeata, 

 H. pygmcea, Vertigo edcntula, while even Pupa ringens, Helix 

 lai/iellata, and Clausilia lamitiata might possibly be found to occur 

 there. The roadsides and walls and hedge-rows were found to be 

 very prolific hunting-grounds, and the lines of scars along the hill- 

 sides offer attractions to various species of calcareous inclination. 



August i8go. 



