GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 125 
24 sea-sliells from Alaska enumerated (one new), and their geographical 
range discussed by E. v. Martens, Mat. Bliitt. xix. pp. 80-^90. 
The shells collected on the coast of North-west America during Cook’s 
third voyage reviewed, id. ibid. pp. 40-44. 
Paloiontology of Recent Species. 
Unio sinuatus (Lam.). Pieces of the hinge-portion, used as ornaments, have 
been found with other antiquities, in the provinces of Nassau and Hesse, and 
single valves in a sort of tufa near Ilomburg, with old pottery ascribed to 
the stone age, and near Wiesbaden with Roman culinary antiquities. This 
species, therefore, which does not now occur in Germany, probably lived 
there in the prehistoric and perhaps also in the Roman age. Sandberger, 
Mall. Blatt. xx. pp. 95-99. 
E. V. Martens mentions that this Unio has also been found with Roman 
antiquities near Mannheim, and points out its present geographical limits j 
he suggests that the shells alone niaj’^ have been imported as ornaments in 
former times. SB. Nat. Fr. 1872, pp. 101-103, and '\"erh. Berl. Ges. An- 
thropol. 1872, p. 22. 
S rROBEL, treating of tho shells (chiefly of the genus Unio) found in 
prehistoric remains of human dwellings called terrcmarc or maricre in a 
part of Italy, and paraderos in Patagonia, reviews the use made generally by 
mankind of bivalve shells, describing accurately the state of preservation and 
the circumstances in which these shells are found, and coming finally to the 
conclusion that in the of Patagonia these bivalves have been em- 
ployed as food by the natives, but that in the marierc of Italy they either 
lived in tho water on the spot where they have been found, or have been 
unconsciously transported with the earth containing them by man. Arch. 
Antr. Etn. ii. pt. 2, pp. 1-40; an abstract of it also in Verb. Berl. Ges. Au- 
thropol. 1872, pp. 19-22. 
Contemporaneous Changes of Fauna. 
Helix asp€7'sa (Muli.)=s/7MW2osa (Lowe) and H. lactea (Miill.), and perhaps 
also H.pisana (Miill.), Ilyalina (Miill.), Stcnogyra decollataifi.), and 
Cyclostomtis elegans (Miill.), most probably imported from Europe to the 
Canaries. Mousson, Malac. Can. pp. 69-71, 29, 16, 120, 143. 
Physa acuta, Brap., appears to have spread and become more common in 
Belgium of late years. Van der Broeck, Bull. Mai. Belg. vii. pp. xxxvii 
& xxxix. 
Use by Man. 
Instances of the use of shell-fish as food, and of shells for culinary, orna- 
mental, or other purposes, in ancient and modern times, arc reviewed by 
I^i. V. Martens, Z. Ethnol. iv. 1872, pp. 21-30 & 65-87; suppl. id. Verb. 
Berl. Ges. Antbropol. 1872, pp. 154-156, The use of bivalves discussed in 
a similar manner by Strobel, Arch. Antr. Etn. ii. pt. 2 (sep. print, pp. 1-5). 
The present condition of the fisheries for Pinna muricata [?], the byssus of 
which is sometimes employed for weaving, and for Cardium tuberculatum and 
Tape^ dccussata at S. Antioco, Sardinia, the breeding of mussels and oysters 
at Tarento, and tlie failure of oyster-breeding in the once renowned Lake 
