THE WEST AMEKICAN SCIENTIST. 



After the first flush of victory over these discoveries has subsid- 

 ed, one may recall that notwithstanding the most diligent search, 

 not the faintest trace of pupas or other minute shells has been seen 

 and such it will then be considered hopeless to find. But the not 

 finding, is not the best proof in the world that a thing is not. And 

 so you will think, when, carelessly turning over a fallen yucca 

 trunk in one of the least promising locations, you have the experi- 

 ence of the writer of actually finding twenty-one healthy, living 

 representatives of Gabb's Pupa horcleacea at one peep! Like the 

 boy crossing the London bridge time and again in the hopa of find- 

 ing another penny, may be your future search for these dainty 

 'babies'. 



But you are destined to still greater surprises may be, as wander- 

 ing among the pines on a visit to the 'mountains', Cuyamaca or 

 Paola, your instinct for shells is awakened by the sight of a verit- 

 able decaying log lying on a moist bank by running water! Prompt- 

 ly begins the search, — and lo! the results! — a half dozen of 

 Zonites conspectus, an equal number of Z. f ulvus, possibly one or 

 two Z. arboreus, an example of Vertigo ovata and a limax — scarcely 

 distinguishable from its eastern cousin! 



A more robust, very depressed form of Helix Traskii than the 

 typical shell found near the coast will reward your further search 

 at this elevation, of six or seven thousand feet. 



From the above it will be seen that the land mollusks of San 

 Diego and its vicinity — including the county, itself far larger than 

 the state of New York, — can be divided into two distinct classes ; 

 first, those of the coast region, that find it necessary to sestivate 

 during the long, dry summers; and second, those of the high lands 

 where frost and snow compel them to hibernate. 



The first class is peculiarly Californian, none of the six or eight 

 species being found outside of the Californian province, which 

 properly extends from British America, to the southern extremity 

 of Lower California, — where the helices are of the Californian types, 

 but the bulimuses are wholly Mexican. 



The second class excluding the mountain variety of Helix Trask- 

 ii, is largely cosmopolitan. Only Zonites conspectus, Bland, found 

 from Alaska to San Diego, is restricted to the Pacific coast, and 

 that is closely allied to an eastern species. The others are found 

 from Oregon to Maine, through the northern United States and 

 three of them are identical with British forms. 



The season is becoming of great promise to the farmer and bot- 

 anist alike on account of the early rains, bnt there is no telling 'till 

 afterwards. 



