Mollusks. 



8337 



on the sand, and the eye of the great sea eagle watches us from above. 

 On passing inland from the beach I observe, crawling on the bare 

 spots between the scanty scrub which grows on the sandy soil, numbers 

 of snails. These I find are Helix globulus of Miiller, a species of 

 snail belonging to the Old World group, Dorcasia, examples of which 

 occur in China, India and Australia, as well as in Southern Africa. 

 The only indication of their habits I have met with occurs at page 108 

 of Albers' ' Heliceen,' where H. fodiens, Pfr. is stated to have been 

 found in the ground by Mr. Cuming in the island of Luzon. In dry 

 weather not a single example of Helix globulus is to be seen on the 

 sand, but no sooner does the rain penetrate the soil than hundreds 

 make their way to the surface, moving quickly by means of a greatly 

 expanded, flattened, creeping disk, the " colour of the desert." Among 

 the broom -like brushwood under the leaves, creeping timidly forth, 

 but always on the surface of the moist sand, I observe another Pul- 

 monifer, a little pale reversed Pupa, Faula Kurrii, which Albers says, 

 on the authority of Krauss, " leben auf Pflanzen." 



We have enjoyed a ramble about Rio and another at the Cape, and 

 now we will transport ourselves in imagination to China and Japan. 



On all the elevated breezy downs, and they are very numerous along 

 the sea-board of Shantung and Liatung, and more especially on their 

 exposed and rounded summits, where the soil is scant and stony, and 

 where hardly anything flourishes but thistles, I find Helix pyrozona, 

 Phil., Acasta ravida, Bens:, a species of the Nanina group, and Helix 

 (Dorcasia) bolus, Bens. Two new species have also occurred to me 

 in similar situations, but which have not yet been christened. But 

 none of these snails are half so attractive as the humming-bird hawk- 

 moths, with which these localities are always associated in my mind. 

 The sedums are in full flower, and cover the surface of the earth with 

 little golden pyramids, and around these magazines of nectar hover 

 the Macroglossae, the only sentient things save the snails one claims 

 acquaintance with on these barren heights, unless, indeed, you cross 

 the highest ridge at the highest point, and look down upon the jagged 

 fractured rocks of black basalt, when you may see the gulls and the 

 oystercatchers, and hear their melancholy wail and the harsh cry of 

 the fishing cormorant, mingling with the roar of the great toppling 

 waves as they come thundering in upon the boulders at the base. 

 But in the quiet sunny spots where the sedums bloom, round and 

 round hover the pretty moths, vibrating their wings and probing with 

 their spiral tongues the yellow pyramids of stars which gladden the 

 dull earth. 



VOL. XXI. E 



