51 



art of snail-catching to know whether a ditch is best worked when it 

 is dry or when it has water in it, but on this occasion we found miles 

 of ditches with the mud in them baked as hard as a brick, and so far 

 as we could see, the snails, if there ever were any in them, had taken 

 their departure, or may have buried themselves in the mud before it 

 became so dry and hard. However, we at last succeeded in finding 

 a place where a small sluice was fixed, and here was a small pool of 

 water. A very cursory examination showed that there was no lack of 

 creeping things in it, though the number of species proved to be small. 

 The amphibious Succinea putris was crawling over the woodwork of 

 the sluice and on the adjacent reeds in any numbers, and the " gravy- 

 strainer " soon brought Planorbis vortex, P. coviplanatus (?), Limncea 

 pereg- ea, and L. stagnalis to the surface ; but that was all. Continuing 

 our walk along a dusty road between dry ditches, which, by-the-bye, 

 I have never before known dry, we reached one of the larger 

 " drains ; " in fact, one may call it a small river, where there is at 

 times a considerable current as the superfluous water finds its way 

 down to the sea, but all that came to light here were a few immature 

 Bythinia tentaculata, and a dead shell of Valvata piscina/is. But it 

 was the down lands that received the greater part of our attention. 

 Here there was no lack of material to work upon. Helix ericetorwn 

 lay about on them in millions, not evenly distributed over the whole 

 surface of a down side, but so thick on a few acres that one could 

 not move without continually treading on them, while the next patch 

 would be absolutely bare of them. One interesting form, with a 

 raised spine, was taken, unfortunately a dead shell, also a nice series 

 of examples of a dull brown colour, with indistinct pale bands. H. 

 virgatn was also very abundant, and a good series was taken, in- 

 cluding one individual in which the dark band was strongly dentate. 

 H. nemoralis was not found on the downs near the town, but beyond 

 Birling Gap their dead shells were lying about in great numbers ; 

 so stout and strong were they on this chalky soil, that when one trod 

 on them in walking it simply drove them into the turf without in the 

 least injuring them. Other species that we came across in one way 

 and another included Helix hortensis, H. cantiana, If. rufescens, H. 

 hispida, H. caperata, H. rotundata, Zonites cellarius, Cochlicopa 

 lubrica, Bulimus obscurus, and Pupa secale. The last-mentioned 

 species, so abundant a year or two ago, adhering to the bare chalk 

 of the cliffs, or to the under sides of fallen pieces of chalk in great 

 numbers, appeared to be quite a rarity this summer, no doubt 

 driven into deeper hiding by the excessive dryness of the soil. 



I have altogether exceeded the bounds to which I originally 

 intended these notes to run. That the enjoyment of my holiday was 

 greatly enhanced by the matters which came under my notice in the 

 course of my daily rambles, and which I have endeavoured to here 

 set forth, I can honestly say, and it will be a cause of much further 

 gratification to me if, in the recapitulation of them, I have succeeded 

 in imparting to you any small fragment of that enjoyment. 



