creatures in a state of hybernation are likely to be carried by ocean 

 currents while hiding in chunks and underneath the bark of drift 

 timber, or in the interstices of floating pumice, etc. Thus situated, 

 they may sometimes be protected, or partially protected, from contact 

 with sea water, and may be carried during calm weather to great 

 distances, so that the arrival of shells or ova, still alive, on the shores 

 of a foreign country, or distant island, may not be a very improbable 

 event ; but, of course, the most favourable conditions are required 

 for not only the landing but the establishment of the creatures. 

 Another means of dispersal is by birds, and although the transportal 

 of shells by these agencies can only rarely happen, as Mr. Wallace 

 has remarked, " Nature can afford to wait," and if but once in many 

 years a single bird should convey two or three minute snails to a 

 distant island, that is all that is required for us to find that island 

 stocked with a large and varied population of land shells. 



Just a word about musical sounds in connection with Achatinella. 

 The Rev. Glanville Barnacle (who served as astronomer to the 

 Government expedition to the Sandwich Islands in 1874) has 

 recorded in the " Journal of Conchology " in 1883, that when up the 

 mountains of Oahu hunting for Achatinella, he heard the most 

 curious and wildest music, as if from hundreds of ^olian harps. On 

 a tree close at hand were many of these creatures, the animals 

 drawing after them their shells, which, grating against the wood,' 

 caused a sound, and the multitude of sounds produced the fanciful 

 music. On this tree he took seventy shells of many varieties, and 

 twenty-three more at the root in the grass. I believe this statement 

 about musical sounds has been corroborated by other observers. 



I have two specimens of AmpuUaria sent me by a lady 

 missionary from the West Coast of Africa, which, she says, emit a 

 faint musical sound, but how it is produced I cannot find out. 

 This is only another of those many puzzles which continually 

 occur in the study of any department of natural history, and which 

 await the attention of the naturalist observer. 



