YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION AT WITHERNSEA. 295 
place and at Out Newton. These deposits, virtually the remains of 
ancient meres which at one time studded the 
Holderness Coast, but have since become silted up, are of exceeding 
interest to the conchologist, inasmuch as by a consideration of them 
he hopes to trace the relationship that exists between the molluscan 
inhabitants of those ancient meres with the species now found in the 
ditches and dykes of the immediate vicinity, as well as obtaining 
some idea of the past condition of Holderness before it was converted 
into an agricultural district through the agency of man. It is very 
singular that the shells taken from these deposits are restricted to a 
few common forms, such as Spherium corneum, Pisidium pusillum, 
Valvata piscinalis, Limnea peregra, L. stagnalis, the shells of which 
are extremely abundant throughout. The only mere still existing 
unencroached upon by the sea is the one at Hornsea, with which 
these lacustrine deposits remarkably correspond, excepting in this 
particular, the small range of molluscan fauna they contain. 
Hornsea Mere possesses a rich variety of mollusca, but the deposits 
examined on this occasion gave no evidence of such having been the 
case with them. It appears that this paucity in the variety of the 
molluscan fauna has been observed in all the lake-deposits examined 
on the coast. 
Messrs. F. W. Fierke, T. Petch, B.A., and J. Coltman (Hull) 
were concerned in the investigation of the district north of 
Withernsea. A strong wind blowing at the time prevented any 
great success among the terrestrial species, but as much time was 
spent in examining the cliffs and the banks on the roads as the day 
would comfortably allow. Waxholme Road, in sheltered places, 
produced a few common shells, and Waxholme Cutting, a deep 
hollow running inland from the direction of the cliff, proved a happy 
retreat for the larger helices, He/ix nemoralis being represented by a 
fair number of very beautifully coloured and banded varieties. The 
careful examination of moss growing on the sides of the Cutting near 
the cliff resulted in the discovery of Vertigo pygmea. A little march 
further on the cliff brought the party to two or three ponds, the first 
of which (already being overhauled by the coleopterists) contained 
some fine specimens of Planorbis nautileus and variety crista and 
numerous /isidia, whilst the pond a little further off appeared to be 
in the sole occupation of Spherium lacustre. 
Leaving the ponds for a while, the conchologists proceeded to 
Sand-le-Mere, where the foreshore is separated from the low valley 
which drains inland by a high sand bank. Here the tall grasses and 
thistles rise from the sandy soil, quite besieged by a vast army of 
that pretty, seaside-loving shell, Helix virgata, with the variety 
Oct. 1892. - 
