360 Notes on the Indian terrestrial Gasteropoda. [No. 4 
sions, though they might, if regard were had solely to their (mollus- 
cous) fauna, be again subdivided, but I prefer the more comprehen- 
sive natural boundaries, as at once more intelligible and real. 
It may be urged with some show of truth, that the altitude of a 
range or district, exercises a similar influence on its fauna, that a 
change of latitude does, and that consequently mere geographical 
divisions are arbitrary, unless consideration is also had to the modify- 
ing influence of the height of the country embraced within it, but 
whilst admitting that altitude corresponds in a manner, as far as 
climate goes, with latitude, and that similar faunas maintain a 
co-relation with either a certain latitude or corresponding altitude, yet 
it does not seem that these similar conditions give rise to specific 
identity as a result, thereby diminishing the significance of specific 
areas; but rather that such similarity of conditions permits of the 
presence of interlopers or stragglers from other areas, without such 
examples ever rising above the category of exceptional cases. 
The six provinces which I think can naturally be established, are 
as follows :— 
Province I.—The Himalayan, embracing the main and lower ranges 
of the Himalayas, together with the Khasi and 
Jynteah Hills. 
Province 11.—The. central, embracing the plains of India, South of 
Province I. including and bounded by the valleys of 
the Ganges, Indus, Taptee and Godavery. 
Province I1I.—The Southern, embracing Peninsular India, South of 
Province II. 
Province [V.—The Birmese, embracing Arrakan, British and Indepen- 
dent Birma, the Tenasserim Provinces and adjacent 
Islands. 
Province V.—The Cingalese. 
Province VI.—The Germanic (in part), embracing Afghanistan and 
the Thibetan face of the Himalayas. 
The Table given below exhibits the number of species of each 
genus of the Helicide and Cyclostomidze in India, and the number of 
species which may be termed “ vagrant,” or which range beyond the 
limits of one or more provinces, but of course, when so many addi- 
tions are being made yearly to the list of our Indian shells, this Table 
can only be taken as illustrating a general proposition, and not as 
