president's addkess. 247 



of tlie year. Some twenty species have been recorded, but the limit 

 of the range of many has yet to be determined. Theobald's list ' of 

 sixty-four species includes shells from Murree, the base of the outer 

 hills of the Punjab, and even far out into the plains. 



To give some idea of the present land molluscan fauna of the 

 North- West Frontier, I have listed out all the species hitherto recorded, 

 separating those north of the Pir Panjal axis of elevation from those 

 of the south side, Murree and the Punjab frontier. As regards this part 

 of India, the first list (Appendix A) shows that the majority of the 

 genera and species are European and Central Asian, with the exception 

 of a few species of Zonitidee which have passed over into this area. 

 Species of this purely Oriental group are not numerous ; only five 

 genera, represented by as many species, occur. Three of these were 

 found at Sonamurg, at the head of the Sind Yalley at 10,000 feet, 

 where the cold of Winter is even at the present day extreme, and 

 deep snow covers the ground for many months. During the Glacial 

 Period this valley was filled hj a glacier forty miles in length, the 

 terminal end of which was only about five miles from the Plain of 

 Kashmir, so the present extension up and occupation of this part 

 of the Sind Valley by these genera can only date from the decline 

 of those conditions. The Yalley of Kashmir in early Post-Glacial 

 times was, I am led to think, quite open, with a temperate 

 climate ; and as representatives of these genera are now found 

 living in the Jhelum Valley, at Murree, etc., their original and 

 Pre-Ulacial extension was from that southern side. Thus we may 

 infer that a long and gradual exposure to cold conditions has 

 rendered members of a tropical group able to contend with, and 

 exist through, a long, rigorous winter. It would be also interesting 

 to know whether any species of the Zonitidse occur at a similar 

 altitude in the main valleys of Maru Wardwan, which were also 

 for many, many miles of their course once filled with ice, and 

 how far exactly such species do extend. The same information is 

 wanted on the Chenab and Sutlej llivers. In Kashmir not a single 

 operculated land-shell is recorded ; - two or three of the Helices are 

 well-known N.W. Himalayan forms. The second list (Appendix li) 

 IS a fuller one as regards the Land Shells. The greater number are 

 found in the N.AV. Himalayas, and indicate extension from that 

 direction. Further west, we know nothing of the land-shells of 

 Chitral and the Khyber Hills, the few obtained from the Kuttak 

 Hills and the Kuram Valley are confined to the genera JPetrcetcs, 

 Bensonia, and a Macrochlamys very close to M. Flemingi. In 

 Afghanistan Palasarctic species come in, and in Sind, on the 

 Khojhak range, a Parmacella has been found. 



We have here reached the limit of the extension of the Zonitidee, 

 and I will now pass to a review of the genera and subgenera of 

 the Zonitida), more particularly concerning what is known up to 



1 Journ. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. xlvii, pt. 2 (1878), p. 148. 

 ^ The exact limit of Alycmis and of JJiplommatina west of the Sutlej has yet to be 

 ascertained. 



