Jan., 1906.] 
Land and Fresh Water Mollusca. 
449 
A FEW GENERAL NOTES AND REMARKS WITH RESPECT 
TO THE LAND AND FRESH WATER MOLLUSCA.* 
V. Sterki. 
A friend of mine, lover and observer of nature, has told me 
repeatedly that “forty or fifty years ago, snails were plenty, 
large and beautiful; now you hardly ever see an 3 ^” Even during 
the last 22 \^ears (of my collecting), I have noticed a change for 
the worse. Several species and forms have disappeared at cer- 
tain places, or become scarcer. The same is true, probably, 
over most of the state. Owing to deforestation and culti- 
vation, the sheltering places have become more scarce and, 
what counts more, the atmosphere as well as the soil is less 
humid and is unsuitable for a large part of molluscan life. (It may 
be mentioned that the same man states that e. g. “huckleber- 
ries” have become scarcer and smaller.) 
Still worse is it with fresh water mollusca. Springs are disap- 
pearing, runs and creeks are dr}' during a large part of the 
summer, rivers come to their lowest stages, when sun-heat kills 
the animals even where still under a few inches of water, which 
in itself becomes of poor quality. At man}’ places the banks are 
denuded of trees and undergrowth, and protection from shade is 
cut off. 
Another factor towards the same end, is the unrestricted 
discharge of all kinds of refuse and contamination from factories 
and towns into the rivers and creeks, doubly detrimental with 
low water. Mr. Geo. H. Clapp has stated, some years ago, that 
for eighty miles below Pittsburg, hardly a living mussel, or 
other mollusk could be found in the Ohio River. The same 
conditions I found at Wheeling: the bottom was covered with a 
muddy, ferruginous deposit; a very few dead mussel shells of 
depauperate form were found, but not a living animal or plant. 
Destruction of life in our “great and beatuiful river” will go on 
and on, if radical measures are not resorted to for “ amendment.” 
Some other rivers, or parts of them, are still in a better condi- 
tion, but almost everywhere the effects of the causes mentioned 
are noticeable and becoming more so from year to year. As 
an example on a smaller scale, I cite the eastern branch of the 
Tuscarawas river, running southeast to Warwick: it is a 
dreary, black, barren mud-ditch, in which no fish or other 
animal can live, owing to the refuse of factories, principally at 
Barberton. 
Students of other groups of animals have, no doubt, to tell 
the same tale, especially the ichth}’ologists. The wealth of fish 
which was in our rivers, and still might be in a large measure, is 
* Presented before the Cincinnati meeting, Ohio St. .\cad. of Sci., Dec. 2, 1905. 
