]18 Contrihutions to Indian Jüalacohgy. [No. 2, 



Jlelix castra, Benson, on tbe hills of Balasore in Northern Orissa, and 

 more recently a single specimen of a shell perfectly undistingüishable 

 i'rom HelLv Huttoni, P(¡piffer, has oecurred to us on tlie northern flank 

 of the Nilgiri mountains in Southern India.* Both of these species 

 have a vvide distribution ; H. castra being known to range from 

 Sikkim to the Tenasseiim provinces, and H Huttoni throughout 

 the greater portion of the Himalayas. Indeed it is more than pro- 

 bable, from an examination of recently collected specimens of H. 

 tapeina, Benson, that H Huttoni is only a variety of that species, 

 an iclentity which, if substantiated, will extend its range to the 

 Khasi Hills and Burmah, where the variable but scarcely distinguish- 

 able II. rotatoria, V. d. Busch, replaces it, unless the latter also 

 prove to be only a variety. 



It is exceedingly probable that, as each región becomes more 

 thoroughly searched, many other species will be found to have a far 

 more extensive range than is at presen t supposed. The peninsula of 

 India is, as a rule, extremely poor in land shells, and the conchologist 

 may travel for miles over its plains without meeting with a single 

 mollusk. The plains of Bengal, from a space as large as the British 

 Isles, have scarcely furnished twenty species. On the contrary the 

 Himalayas, especially their eastern portion, and the Burmese penin- 

 sula, appear to be extremely rich both in species and individuáis, a 

 circumstance doubtless intimately connected with the greater and 

 more constant huvnidity of the climate. With a fevv exceptions M 

 Cis-gangetic India has been fairly explored by conchologists, although 

 it has not been thoroughly searched. Of Trans-gangetic India, 

 nine-tenths are totally unexamined. At least half of the Himalayas 

 have never been visited, and all that has been carefully explored 

 consists of a considerable tract in the western Himalayas around 

 Simia and Masúri, and the outer hills of Sikkim, from which we 

 ourselves, but the other day, procured more than twenty undescribed 

 forms. The Khasi Hills, a small tract of country, have been ññrly 

 examined, but the vast península thence to Singapore has only been 

 searched in the immediate neighbourhood of Molmain, whilst a few 

 shells have been collected during hurried visits, or (the larger species 



* Mr. Benson also ¡tiforms us that he has received H.fasligiata, Hutt. from 

 the Kilgiris. 



