326 PROCEEDINGS OF THE MALACOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



NOTES ox LAND-SHELLS FROM A HOLOCEXE DEPOSIT AT THE 

 HORSESHOE PIT, COLLEY HILL, REIGATE. 



By the Eev. E. Ashington Bullen, B.A.., F.L.S., etc. 



■ Read Qth June, 1899. 



The object of this paper is to describe the land-shells from a deposit 

 at Beigate which I worked in June and July, 1898. My aim was 

 to work out as far as possible the date of Helix pomatia, to which 

 Lieut. -Col. H. H. Godwin -Austen, F.B.S., our President, called 

 attention on June 10th, 1898. 



He had about twenty years before found some bones ^ associated 

 with S. pomatia at a depth of about two feet. Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.B.S., has identified amongst these bones the hyoid bone of Equus 

 and the metatarsal either of Oois (sp.) or Capreolus caprea. They are 

 much eroded by roots of j)lants. In the metatarsal bone occurred 

 a very brittle Vallonia pulchella. These bones, which adhere strongly 

 to the tongue, are from the upper part of the quarry in the Upper 

 Greensand to the east of the Horseshoe Pit, the superficial layer in 

 which corresponds to that in the latter, though it is not so thick. 

 The material in which the shells occur is a mixture of Middle Chalk 

 and Upper Greensand. From the former derived examples occurred 

 of Terebratulina gracilis, var. lata ; Terebratulina triangularis, Ether. ; 

 Rliynclionella Martini, Mant. ; Kingena lima, Defrance ; RhyncJionella 

 Grasiana'i , D'Orb. ; Belemnite fragment, and species of Echini; 

 whilst probably from the Upper Greensand, there was a facetted 

 hydrated manganous oxide (Mn 0) nodule. 



There are reasons for believing that the popular name of ' Roman ' 

 Snail for Helix pomatia is a misnomer. The species is found in 

 southern Scandinavia, ^ to which the Romans did not penetrate. 

 Mrs. McKenny Hughes points out that though Helix aspersa is found 

 in great abundance in Roman rubbish pits at ChesterforcP and other 

 places round Cambridge, and though it still occurs in a living state at 

 Shelford, shells of Helix pomatia do not occur in such Roman remains. 

 Kew * (quoting Jeffreys) affirms that it does not occur in Roman remains 

 among other shells in Northants, although abundant at Woodford 

 in the same county, and (quoting Rev. L. Blomefield) says that the 



^ Now in my possession. 



2 Jordan, "Die BinnenmoUusken, etc." : Nova Acta Acad. Cccs. Leop.- Carol., 



Bd. xlv, No. 4, table 10. 



3 GeoL Mag., 1888, pp. 205, etc. 



* Dispersal of Shells, pp. 240, 241. 



