147 



LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCA OF ROSSSHIRE, 

 WITH SOME NEW COUNTY RECORDS, 



By J. W. VAUGHAN. 



(Read before the Society, Nov. 9, 1910). 



While spending three weeks this July at Strath peffer, I devoted 

 some of my spare time to slug and snail hunting in the hope of 

 adding to the rather meagre county records. The geological forma- 

 tion is igneous rock, and a great part of the surface is covered with 

 pine wood and peat. I found the land moUusca scarce and difficult 

 to find. The freshwater forms were most abundant in a small loch 

 called Kinellan, and in the Strathpeffer Curling Pond. The large 

 fishing lochs, Luichart and Garve, seem to be barren of molluscan 

 life, at least I found nothing in either of them. Slugs, especially 

 Arion ci?'cuinsaHptus and Agrioliiiiax ag?-estis were abundant in the 

 garden of the Spa Hotel. The pearl fishery in the rivers Blackwater 

 and Conon was once quite an important industry, and, when the 

 water was low in the summer, provided several families with the 

 means of livelihood. Now, I am told, only one or two pearl fishers 

 remain. I found the U. iiiargariiifer abundant in the Conon, and 

 got eight or ten living shells in a very small distance. I have to 

 thank Mr. W. D. Roebuck and Mr. F. Taylor for kindly verifying 

 my specimens. The following is a list of the species I found, the 

 new county records being marked with an asterisk *. 



East Ross. 

 *Arion subfuscus. — Common round Strathpeffer. 

 *Arion hortensis. — Scarce, Spa Hotel Garden. 

 Arion circumscriptus. — Common. 



var. neustriaca. — With the type. 

 Agriolimax agrestis.— Abundant, 

 var. pallida. — Abundant with type, 

 var. reticulata. — Abundant with type. 

 *Hyalinia radiatula. — One specimen under a log of wood, Garve. 

 Helix hortensis. — Two specimens : one, Spa Hotel garden, and 

 one, Pontin. 

 *Limn2ea pereger. — Common round Strathpeffer. 

 *Limn3ea truncatula. — Scarce; Loch Kinellan and Curling Pond. 

 *Limnaea palustris. — Scarce; Loch Kinellan. 

 *Ancylus fluviatilis. — Peffer Stream, near Achterneed. 



Planorbis contortus. — Abundant in Curling Pond ; scarce 

 Killenan Loch. 



