WATSON : MARINE MOLLUSCA OF MADEIRA. 367 



future worker will gather here a rich harvest. Still, Mr. Lowe's 

 collection as compared with my own shows that the marine 

 shells of Madeira have now been brought together in a much 

 larger proportion than I had supposed. 



The fullest list of the marine shells of Madeira is that 

 published by McAndrew, who dredged, as he says, "for a few 

 days " in Funchal Bay, and gave the result in his reports to the 

 British Association in the year 1850. Imperfect as his list 

 necessarily was it showed that the marine mollusca are like the 

 whole terrestrial fauna and flora of the island in the main 

 Mediterranean. That is perhaps all most people care to know, 

 still it is strange that McAndrew's list has not long ago been 

 supplemented. Last year, however, Senhor Augusto Nobre, of 

 Oporto, published in the Instituto of Coimbra a list of shells 

 collected by Senhor Ernesto Schmitz, Madeira. 



More interest might have been expected than has been 

 shown in this field, but several causes have probably conspired 

 to hinder much work here being done. Thus, visitors to 

 Madeira, though many are mainly invalids who are not able for 

 the fatigue and exposure of which a good deal is inevitable in 

 collecting, for — very few spots of the shore are accessible — in 

 most places the sea-edge is a surf-beaten precipice, and even 

 those parts which are accessible present often a mere mass of 

 rolled shingle. Not that even this shingle is destitute of shells, 

 for if a sheltered place be chosen and a pit two or three feet 

 deep below high water mark be cleared out, Melampus, Pedipes, 

 Assiminea, Rissoa, Odostomia, &c., may often be found. But 

 further the furious surf, which never ceases, destroys loose shells 

 and makes many parts of the shore quite unapproachable. 

 Thus near Funchal, where almost exclusively visitors congregate, 

 there is only one strip of the sea margin of about one hundred 

 yards long which is sheltered, and the only bit of sandy beach 

 on the south side of the island is four hours' distant. It has 

 repeatedly happened that after a sail of some hours I have been 

 unable to effect a landing on the piece of shore for which I was 



