8338 



Mollusks. 



As far as my experience goes I have found North China very un- 

 productive in land shells, and Mr. Fortune, who has explored the 

 woods and mountainous parts of Chi-kiang, informs me that slugs and 

 snails are by no means abundant. Acusta Redfieldi, Pfr., is not very 

 uncommon, a little Streptaxis (Fortunei, Pfr.) was found. Zua hebrica 

 and Ena Fortunei, besides one or two little species of the Pupa tribe 

 not yet described, are among the few North China Pulmonifera already 

 known. This scarcity of Helicidae may possibly be owing to the 

 barren granite nature of the hills, and also to the high state of culti- 

 vation of the plains and valleys. On the hills you may breathe very 

 pure air, and gaze your fill on picturesque rugged rocks, but you will 

 see few flowers and no blooming heather, nor will the red sandy loam 

 below reveal the outline of fairy tarn or lakelet. Snails are said to. 

 have a great partiality for limestone, but here all is granite. The vege- 

 tation, moreover, is never varied or luxuriant enough to supply the 

 wants Of any great herbivorous snails whose pabulum vitas is leaves. 

 On upland slopes the pale yellow stars of Chrysanthemum chinense 

 may attract the eye, and sometimes a modest violet peeps out from 

 beneath the shelter of a clod, or a dull purple Ranuuculus is seen, or 

 a little deep blue gentian emerges from the sandy loam. The rest of 

 the vegetation is made up of burdock, wormwood, toad-flax and hawk- 

 weed, and the sandy parts are covered with a hard spiky grass. 



In Japan, on the east coast of Niphon, and not far from Tatiyama, 

 are two small islets named Takano-Sima and Okino-Sima. We are 

 prohibited from rambling on the mainland, for it belongs to a Daimio 

 unfriendly to foreigners, but the two little islets are placed at our dis- 

 posal for the purpose of exercise and recreation during our stay at this 

 anchorage. Here undisturbed I am enabled to watch the habits of 

 many molluscous creatures, for my observatories are exposed to the 

 rolling wares of the Pacific, and have not been disturbed, except by 

 fishermen, for ages. The narrow beach is fringed '-with a low brushwood, 

 in which the white umbellate flowers of Crinum asiaticum are con- 

 spicuous, w 7 hile the interior of the islets is occupied by huge fig trees 

 (Ficus niiida), which with firs and larches form dark shady labyrinths, 

 the chosen abode of Helix Simodae, Jay, and a little Bulimulus. The 

 proliferous fronds of the handsome fern Woodwardia japonica spring 

 in profusion from the humid soil, and the trunks of the Coniferae are 

 green with Drymoglossum, a curious fern with narrow fertile fronds 

 growing erect from slender twisted stems. Here in the calm warrn 

 days come fishermen to haul the seine, and boatloads of women follow 

 from the mainland to assist their husbands. The song and merry 



