332 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. II, JULY, I906. 



complete edition of the writings of Tycho Brahe, the astronomer. It 

 is known that in 1777 he obtained the loan of the original MSS. of 

 Tycho Brahe from the Royal Library at Copenhagen, and that he 

 returned them in 1778. 



In 1787 he visited England with his family, and on this occasion 

 he made arrangements with certain English publishers who were to 

 undertake the publication jointly. The printing is stated to have 

 been begun, but interrupted by the outbreak of the French Revolution. 

 It appears from the statements of Hwass himself, that he hoped to 

 resume this great undertaking in more tranquil times, but he never 

 succeeded in doing so. In a letter to a relative in Denmark, that is 

 still preserved, he says that he and his family had passed through the 

 troubles of the Revolution without suffering any injury, though in 

 Copenhagen it had been reported that he and his son had been 

 killed, and that his wife had had to seek refuge in a convent. 



After 1794 he spent the greater part of the year at Auteuil, and 

 finally he settled for good at Passy, where he died in 1803. His 

 widow and son continued to live in the same house until they both 

 died in 1824. 



Neither Hwass nor his son Christian Hwass ever occupied any 

 official position. They simply lived on their means. They were 

 both known for their hospitality to Danes who visited Paris. 



The father possessed not only a collection of shells, but also a 

 valuable collection of pictures, which he had been able to bring 

 together during the social trouble in France. It is known that his 

 son inherited the pictures, but the same is not known with certainty 

 as regards the shells, but there^is no reason for doubting it as far as I 

 am aware. 



C. Hwass, Jun., was not married, and at his death, or at any rate 

 at the death of his mother, which took place a few months after his, 

 the whole of his property came into the possession of an old servant 

 of theirs, a certain Mme. Martin. How she came into possession of 

 it is not known ; but of course she sold it privately. In fact there 

 was strong suspicion of foul play. 



Helicella virgata var. hypozona in the Isle of Wight. — While staying in 

 the Isle of Wight early in October, I visited the downs in the neighbourhood of 

 Freshwater in an unsuccessful endeavour to find Helicella barbara L., recorded from 

 there (as ^m/zw;« nciitiis) in the late Mr. C. Ashford's " List of Isle of Wight 

 Mollusca," published a few years ago in Science Gossip. Not even a dead shell 

 was to be seen, but on a grassy slope, near the foot of High Down, I found four 

 specimens of H. virgata var. hypozona, and as this curious variety does not seem to 

 be one of the most widely distributed forms of H. virgata, I have thought the 

 locality worth recording. — F. B. Jennings, October i8th, 1905 {Read before the 

 Society, November 8th, 1905). 



