272 



EMMET 



ACHATIXA ACICULA IX YORKSHIRE. 



Whenever you find a single specimen of a shell anywhere, it is 

 ahvays natural to conclude that there are others — there must be a 

 paterfamilias, and he must have had a progenitor : in fact, there is 

 a conchological Adam somewhere. Once get upon the scent, and 

 you will do wonders ; but I believe you may try all this neighbour- 

 hood as carefully as you please, and you will not find a single shell, 

 unless you go about it in the way I have suggested: and this is the 

 reason why it was not found at the various places mentioned at the 

 beginning of this paper. 



I have found A. acicu'a upon the laminated as well as the ordinary 

 building limestone, as. for instance, at White Crag, near this place, 

 where there are layers of the agricultural limestone, and upon the 

 very spot where Dr. ^lartin Lister found CycIosto?na elegans two 

 centuries ago. I wonder if he noted A. acicula in any of his records? 



Dr. Gray, as above stated, recommends searching at a depth of 

 six or eight inches, but my experience is that you will find it at 

 a much greater depth, even as much as eighteen inches below the 

 surface. It depends upon how the marl is deposited, and upon the 

 amount of soil overlying it. The great point is to look for it carefully 

 amongst the marl below the soil, cautiouslv removing each small 

 fragmentary piece of limestone that covers the rock, and intently 

 looking in every cranny caused by the removal of the said marly and 

 stony pieces, until the shell becomes conspicuous by its white- 

 appearance. Sometimes ten or a dozen will be taken in as many 

 inches. If you follow this advice in this locality you will almost 

 invariably be successful. I can always predicate where I shall be 

 likely to hnd it, and I think Knottingley. Doncaster, Pontefract. &c.. 

 have all the necessary conditions for the existence of the shell, and 

 that it only requires patient research in the manner above indicated to 

 find it there, as well as here. 



In giving this • wrinkle ' to brother conchologists, which has been 

 very useful to myself I hope I shall have helped them to put A. acicula 

 on some of their future lists. It may also be stated that some of the 

 •'knowing ones " recommend pieces of board rubbed over with suet to 

 be placed upon the grass in those places where the shell is known to 

 be, in order that it may be taken alive. It is worth trouble to find it, 

 for it is one of the prettiest and most fragile of all the forms of 

 Achatina. some of which I have found plentifully distributed in the 

 olive gardens at San Remo, and in Rome. But, to my thinking, our 

 British representative is the most beautiful of them all, 



A question suggests itself: How is it that this exquisitely fragile 

 shell, with an animal soft, pulpy, and delicate beyond measure, 

 can insinuate itself a foot or more below the soil, often tenacious and 



Naturalist, 



