2IO JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



NOTES ON THE LAND AND FRESHWATER 



MOLLUSCA OF THE UPPER ENGADINE AND THE 



BREGxAGLIA VALLEYS, EAST SWITZERLAND. 



By the rev. S. SPENCER PEARCE, M.A. 



I have not been able to find much recorded about the 

 mollusca of the Engadine Valleys. In the ' Journal of Con- 

 chology ' for April, 1883, Mr. R. M. Christy, in a short paper 

 entitled " Notes on the Mollusca collected in Switzerland," 

 gives some interesting notices of different species, and amongst 

 them he speaks of some twenty species which he took in the 

 Upper Engadine Valley. 



A five weeks' stay in this valley, at its southern end, on 

 the summit of the Maloja Pass, enabled me to explore much 

 of the same region, as well as a large portion of that adjoining 

 warmer valley — the Val Bregaglia, which extends due south 

 from the Maloja Pass. Roughly speaking the ground I went 

 over stretched twenty miles north and south, and comprised 

 the valley of the Upper Engadine, from the Maloja Pass north- 

 wards to St. Moritz village, and the Val Bregaglia from the 

 Maloja Pass southwards as far as the villages of Promontogno 

 and Bondo. The Maloja Pass — the steep descent from the 

 Upper Engadine into the Val Bregaglia — thus foimed the 

 natural centre of one's rambles. The chief interest of this 

 region lies in its great elevation above the sea. The average 

 altitude of the valley of the Upper Engadine is 6000 feet ; St. 

 Moritz, the highest village, is 6,090 feet above sea-level, while 

 the head of the Maloja Pass is 5,941 feet. Lofty mountains, 

 with snow-clad peaks rising to 10,000 feet, more or less, bound 

 the valley on its eastern and western sides. 



J.C, v., July, 18S7. 



