[OURNAT. OF CONCHOLOGY. 



LAND AND FRESHWATER SHELLS AT KARACHL 



By GERALD W. ADAMS. 



(Read before the Concliological Society, loth August, 1892). 



Happening to make a short stay in Karachi, I, in company 

 with two other doctors attached to ships lying in the harbour, 

 made an excursion of about fifteen miles across the desert to 

 visit the 'Alligator Tank.' In the neighbourhood of this there 

 is a plantation of mangoes, dates, and cocoanut palms, a Moslem 

 Temple and tombs, some boiling sulphur springs, and, what the 

 natives call the ' Milk Spring,' the water of which is opaque 

 white, possibly owing to the presence of a carbonate or sulphate 

 of lime. All this forms an oasis in the desert — a level waste of 

 sand extending for several miles, bearing only here and there 

 Cactuses, a Euphorbia and a few palms — not an ideal hunting 

 ground for land and freshwater shells. However, as I walked 

 about the place my attention was directed to some small white 

 objects lying on the sand, which upon examination proved to be 

 dead bleached shells of various species. These have been 

 identified as — 

 Bulimus chion, which was plentifully distributed over a large 



area. 

 Bulimus pullus, less plentiful. 

 Planorbis (? sp.) indistinguishable from corneus. 

 Succinea (? sp.) exactly like our elegans. 

 Bithynia (sp. ?) very near teiitaculata but smaller. 

 Melania {? sp.) 



And two other species indistinguishable from Li/tificea 

 glabra and Achatina acicula. 



All the shells were found in the neighbourhood of ' Nullahs' 

 leading into the river Liari, which is dried up throughout the 

 year, except for about six weeks in the rainy season, when it 

 becomes a broad river. 



