THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I07 



Oils forests of Europe. Does not this clearly show a connect- 

 ing land passage also at that time (a chain of Islands proba- 

 bly) ? 



FRESH WATER AND LAND SHELLS. 



When we comoare the shells we find in the Rivers, 

 Brooks, Lakes of Canada, with the ones familiar to us in the 

 Old Country, we recognize the identity in man^i instances, 

 VIZ., "Limnea," "Planorbis,'' "Sucinea" (the writer is not in 

 possession of any European Unios — River Mussels to com- 

 pare with specimens found here, and therefore abstains from 

 expressing views which may be erroneous). The writer wdien 

 in command of the Depot 2nd Battalion, i6th Regiment, in 

 the South of Ireland, collected a large number of the banded 

 land snails of the district. Many years after, when employed 

 in Geological researches in the Island of x\nticosti, he discov- 

 ered, many miles away from any human habitation by the 

 sea shore, three living specimens which were obtained identical 

 with the one familiar to him in the Old Country. Two I placed 

 in a rockery here (I have not seen them since) ; the other I 

 gave to Mr. Hanham, who ascertained from a friend in Otta- 

 wa that "he was quite right in his opinion regarding the land 

 snail recently forwarded." It is said Mediterranean sailors 

 take such live stock on board sometimes, and that the com- 

 mon garden one has by some accident established itself on 

 "the Banks of the St. Lawrence." That may be; yet I doubt 

 whether "British sailors" ever conveyed to Anticosti "the 

 Helices" I found there. My countrymen, I feel assured, 

 would be as willing to recognize such things as an article of 

 diet as "the Indian Curry Powder," which a well-meaning but 

 not overwise English Peer suggested, as a means of meeting 

 Irish starvation in Famine times. 



I certainly read an account of the accidental introduction 

 into the States of a British banded snail some years ago. It 

 v/as found attached to a plant brought from England, and af- 

 ter arrival produced a number of young ones with bands, 

 color, etc., differinsr in several instances. Such, no doubt, 



