YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION AT COXWOLD AND BYLAND. 347 
For the Conchological Section Mr. F. W. Fierke, Hull, one of 
the secretaries of the section, reported that the excursion to Coxwold 
might be appropriately described as having been a ‘red-letter day’ for 
the conchologists, although as is too often the case, the attendance 
was meagre, the only members of the Section present being Mr. W. 
Denison Roebuck, F.L.S. (Leeds), and himself. Mr. Roebuck, who 
accompanied the mycologists, was the sole representative on the 
Wednesday’s investigation, when a brief hour's collecting by the side 
of the Derwent, near Castle Howard Station, yielded Helix fusca, 
H. arbustorum, H. granulata (sericea), Succinea putris, Claustlia rugosa, 
Cl. laminata, Zua, and various slugs and commoner shells, as the 
result of turning over a few logs and examining a patch of vegetation 
in a damp spot. 
On Thursday he was joined by Mr. Fierke at Coxwold, a district 
which was to all appearance conchologically a virgin tract. There 
was, however, an impression that it would be of a promising character, 
a prognostication which proved correct ; and it was with much elation 
on their return that the two collectors delivered their tubes and boxes 
of their contents in response to the often repeated question, ‘What 
luck have you had to-day?’ No little amusement was caused by the 
friendly rivalry displayed on the part of some geologists as to their 
right to a gold medal for the most successful sectional work during 
the day, but it is superfluous to add that as is usual with naturalists 
when they enter into controversies, peace and concord were main- 
tained between the two rival sections. 
On arrival at Coxwold Station in the morning an immediate start 
nted some attractive 
party, of which the conchologists were but a small portion, were 
constrained to halt awhile, pondering over the noble pile which still 
bears witness to the past architectural grandeur of the place. But 
reverence for the past soon gave way for the realities of the present, 
nd in the interior of the Abbey 
and the stones strewn over the grou 
were forthwith discovered to be productive of the slimy slug to a 
high degree. The place was literally besieged by them ; In fact, 
every stone turned over revealed the haunts of these ubiquitous 
creatures, most of them being examples of the common Agriolimax 
agrestis and its varieties. 
The route was now taken for Wass Bank, as the adjacent slopes 
of the Hambleton Hills are called. Arrived at the summit of this a 
descent was made at a bridge into a deep lateral ravine, through 
Nov. 1892. 
