JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. 2, APRIL, I904. 49 



I cannot say what the outside of this original specimen is hke, as it 

 is gummed down on a tablet; but in the Herm example a series of 

 tubercles replaces the apertures, so that, without close examination, 

 there is nothing externally to mark its peculiarity. Hence, I imagine 

 it would be difficult to detect the absence of holes in a small hving 

 Ormer. If another specimen could be found alive, the dissection of 

 the animal would settle the interesting question whether or not the 

 slit in the mantle is, as Mr. Smith suggests, altogether wanting. 



Report on the Wirral Peninsula Ramble, July nth, 1903.— During the 



walk from Meols station to the shore a few common mollusca were picked up, but 

 our principal object was to reach the locality of Barnea caizdida at the submerged 

 forest between Leasowe and Hoylake. The remains of this ancient forest are 

 covered by a thick bed of peat, in which stand the stumps of numerous trees — oak, 

 willow, alder, birch, and elm being easily distinguishable. On the surface of this 

 bed many freshwater shells may be found, very fragile, but perfectly recognisable, 

 their presence denoting that before the sea ovei whelmed this tract a swamp or 

 freshwater lake covered the spot. Where Birkenhead Docks now are was once 

 the heart of a forest of birch ("Birchen Wood " it was anciently called). The 

 boundary of this submerged forest we can only approximately trace, but it is cer- 

 tain that all writers, ancient and modern, describe this bay as having been 

 inhabited by man and beast at an early period. According to ancient maps and 

 records, the devastation of the Wirral shore-line must have been very great. 

 Formerly, from the Ribble to the Dee, and from a great distance seaward, extend- 

 ing inward up the valleys of these rivers, the country was clothed with trees. All 

 this wooded country has now utterly disappeared, with the exception of the rem- 

 nants visible at low tide. Fortunately the tide was sufficiently low for our purpose, 

 and very soon we came across some fine colonies of Barnea Candida, the mollusks 

 making their presence known by the spirts of water from their siphons, as we 

 walked over the sodden and slippery peat. The peat, where they occur, is simply 

 honeycombed with their countless burrows, and it was an entirely new experience 

 to most of the party to break off portions of the wave-worn peat ridges, and find 

 them full to overflowing with individuals in all stages of growth. After obtaining 

 as many of these shells as desired, and picking up a few of the common littoral 

 shells, we left the shore for the sand-hills, and were pleased to find that the colony 

 of Helix acuta had not been destroyed by the encroachments of the sea, or the con- 

 struction of the immense new breakwater. Under the stones behind the sea-wall 

 Helix nenioralis, H. caperata, and Javiinia viitscoruni occurred, and in the moist 

 places Succinea elegans. We made a careful search amongst the sand-hills for the 

 "pockets" of wind-blown shells, which are in some places so productive. The 

 results obtained from the sifting of a number of " pockets " does not indicate a 

 great abundance of mollusca in this locality ; we only got Vitrina pellucida, Helix 

 acuta, H. hispida, H. caperata, H. neinoralis (juv.), H. aspersa (juv.), Vit}-ea piira, 

 /a/ninia cylindracea, J. viuscortun, Vertigo pygiucua, Cochlicopa lubrica, Snccinea 

 elegans and Paludestrina stagnalis. — R. Standen (^Read before the Society, Oct. 14, 

 1903). 



