23 34 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



genus were seen only in a damp gully near the south-eastern corner of the 

 island. Pupa anglica was common in many places, the type prevailing in the 

 open, and the vars. pallida and alba where the vegetation became denser. 

 Ancylus fluviatilis occurred abundantly in the small stream flowing into the 

 harbour at Garranty and probably lives in some of the other rivulets as well. 



Although the above list is very similar to that from Clare Island, several 

 notable absentees will be noted. Some of these, such as Limax cinereo- 

 niger, Avion circumscriptus, Sphyradium edentulum, Acanthimda aculeata, and 

 Acicula lineata, would have no doubt been found had my visit been paid at a 

 more favourable time of year. The scarcity of Luzvla maxima and of the 

 kind of ground that favours its growth is possibly responsible for the absence 

 of Acanthimda lamellata and Hygromia fusca, while Helicetta intersecta and 

 H. barhara could hardly exist on the island. 



On Inishturk, as well as on all the western islands I have visited, the 

 struggle for existence among the mollusca is clearly to be seen, and evidence 

 in favour of Mr. C. B. Moffat's idea, 1 that island faunas tend steadily to 

 diminish, is vividly brought before one's mind. A hundred years hence and 

 several of the species upon my list may have vanished for ever from Inishturk. 



Inishbofin. 



Compared with the islands of Turk and Clare, Inishbofin may be considered as 

 low-lying. There are, nevertheless, several hills exceeding 250 feet in elevation. 

 Xone of these is steep enough to yield any great degree of shelter ; but, as in 

 the case of the other islands, there exist along the eastern shore several 

 places where a rank vegetation flourishes. To the south of Church Lough 

 are several rocky slopes, which proved excellent collecting-ground, while 

 behind the sandy beach of the eastern harbour is an extensive tract of damp 

 meadow-land, appropriately called Cloonamore. At Bunnamullan Bay, and 

 about a quarter of a mile eastward of Doonahineena on the north coast, there 

 is a certain amount of cover for mollusca upon some of the cliffs, which in 

 places run inland for considerable distances. Here and there all round the 

 coasts s imil ar but smaller refuges may be found. Sandy areas are more 

 extensive on Inishbofin than on any of the neighbouring islands nearer than 

 Achill, and an abundance of the two xerophiles, Helicella itala and H. bavbava, is 

 not surprising. One might almost say that the greater portion of the interior 

 of the island possesses no molluscan fauna whatever. Naturally inhospitable 

 to mollusca, the inhabitants have completed what nature began, and by 

 stripping the peaty soil down to the very rocks have left the island, in places, 



1 Irish Nat., xvi, 133-145. 





