356 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. IT, JULY, I906. 



&c. One species of slug [Pkylornicus biliniattis Bens.) I found fairly commonly in 

 Nagasaki, Kobe, Shimonoseki and Yokohama. Another larger and yellow- 

 coloured I heard of but failed to secure. The only public collection of land and 

 freshwater shells that I know of in Japan is a most complete and well-arranged one 

 in the museum of the Tokio University, through which Professor Ijima was good 

 enough to guide me. One day in a country graveyard near Yokohama I found a 

 promising heap of leaves and stones, and as I was busily engaged upon this I was 

 accosted by an old gentleman dressed in a large pair of spectacles and a very scanty 

 pocket-handkerchief and holding a gorgeous paper umbrella over his shaven 

 head. As my knowledge of Japanese is not extensive I could only conjecture that 

 he wished to enquire what I was doing amid the ashes of his ancestors. Being 

 accustomed to similar enquiries under similar circumstances I had ready a reply that 

 I have always found receive respectful credence in many countries, viz. : — that I 

 was a doctor and was collecting snails as medicine. Evidently much impressed he 

 helped me in my search in odd corners of the graveyard and we finally parted with 

 oriental compliments and salutations. The result of our combined labours was the 

 following ClaiisiliiT which Mr. E. R. Sykes has been kind enough to identify for 

 me. CI. japonica Crosse; CI. aciihts Bens., and C/. hyperolia Mart.; also Eiilo.'a 

 goodwinii E. A. Smith. Not far from the famous waterfall at Kobe I came across 

 a colony of Eiilota aperata, all of which are of a smaller and rather thicker appear- 

 ance than the type in the National Museum at South Kensington. Here I would 

 pay a ttibute to the courtesy of the country people who would frequently help me 

 when they came upon me collecting; men, women and children would bring me 

 frogs, newts, beetles, crabs, &c.,and whenever I rewarded a small boy with a coin, 

 it was always evidently quite unexpected. Indeed the only act of discourtesy I 

 experienced was from a sampan man who, on receiving not more than double his 

 proper fare for pulling me on board my .ship, vented his wrath upon me in words 

 which showed his acquaintance with English or American firemen. Ponds and 

 ditches were usually destitute of molluscan life, partly perhaps on account of the 

 enormous quantity of frogs and sometimes crabs, which might feed on the 

 spawn and the young snails, but probably more because the hill streams which feed 

 the ponds and ditches are dry during the greater part of the year. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kobe I came upon a wide ditch-cutting about seven feet deep with a 

 clear sandy bottom and steep sides. The ditch was dry when I commenced to walk 

 along the bottom l)ut numbers of Melania liherlina Gould were crawling about on 

 the sand. Presently a tremendous downpour commenced on the neighlwuring hills 

 and in ten minutes a torrent of water two feet deep was rushing down to the sea. 

 In some of the more stagnant ditches between paddy fields I found a few Pahidina 

 japonica Mart., a few small Anodons and dead valves of ordinary looking Sphceria. 

 At Yokohama I came upon Ganesella japonica Pfr. , and at Kobe several Eiilota 

 sitnilaris Fer., which species Mr. E. A. Smith informs me is widely distributed in 

 the Far East in rice districts. Leaving Japan we proceeded to Java, but here my 

 researches resulted in absolutely nothing as far as non-marine mollusks were con- • 

 cerned, my wanderings being confined to the plains on the coast where no rain had 

 fallen for two months, and dust was thick everywhere. The rivers and ditches are 

 muddy creeks without weeds of any kind, and the stagnant marshes at Sourabaya 

 were apparently destitute of every sort of animal life. I was informed, however,' 

 that in the forests among the mountains land shells were in great profusion. — 

 Lionel E. Adams {Read before the Society, April nth, 1906). 



