walks with that learned but modest Naturalist, Mr. Jas. Bagnall, seen it plentifully distributed along the canal bank at Holywell, about four miles from Henley. Mr. Slatter, of Redditch, says it is common at Littleton, near Evesham; and we have taken it near Evesham Railway Station. In all these places it extends for a considerable distance along the road. Nearly all the shells are rufous and white, white shells being uncommon; for, although Reeve says "the lower half of the shell is always tinged with a rufous foxy rust colour," it is not so; pure white shells are not uncommon in the south-eastern counties on the chalk, and occur occasionally wherever the species is plentiful.
The shells vary in size and texture, recording to the nature of the creature's habitat; specimens from the chalk or limestone, where the plants upon which it feeds contain abundance of lime, are large and smooth, while those from the sparsely clad sand-dunes of Deal are stunted and rough. We have examples in our cabinet of a truly minor form, its dimensions are B. 0.55, Alt. 0.35, the ordinary size being B. 0.70, Alt. 0.40. We have shells B. 0.80, Alt. 0.50.
Dr. Turton says this species was introduced by "colliers" into Northumberland, where it occurs on the banks of the Tyne. In the "Quarterly Journal of Conchology" for August, 1878, our excellent correspondent, Mr. J. S. Gibbons, M.B., notes its occurrence on the Chalk Cliffs, near Flamborough Head, in Yorkshire, "in a locality so retired that it is impossible to suppose it otherwise than indigenous;" it is very common in some districts of central Yorkshire, and it is possible, therefore, that it may be found in Durham.
The locality, "near Dublin,” is given in Gray's Turton, (p. 36) probably on the authority of its being named as occurring there in Welsh and Whitelaw's History of Dublin; but Dr. J. Gwyn-Jeffreys says "subsequent writers on Irish Conchology have not confirmed the correctness of such statement."
Reeve says (p. 67) Mr. Guise believed it to have been introduced into Glamorganshire, where he found it between Swansea and Oystermouth.
We shall be very pleased to receive any further notes of the occurrence of this species in places not known to us.
Handsworth, Birmingham.
A Piece of Chalk.
By Fred. F. Grensted, Maidstone.
Only a piece of chalk, of no appreciable value, and yet it has preserved a decipherable record of marvellous events which happened numberless ages ago! Judging by analogy, where England now stands, water a mile or two in depth was "once upon a time" lashed into ocean waves by the passing wind. Travelling in thought to the bottom of this
