Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/36

14 I am preparing a description of the Carocolla above-mentioned, the animal of which, as far as this particular species is concerned, fully justifies Lamarck's separation of the genus from Helix. Since writing the above account, I have discovered a new genus of amphibious shells, inhabiting the tract between high and low water mark in the river Hooghly, the animal of which, bearing only two tentacula, differs alike from the fresh water and land genera, which are similarly circumstanced in having the eyes (or, more properly speaking, the percipient points) on the summits of the tentacula, as in the quadri-tentaculated species, instead of at their base. The discovery of two new genera, and of as many new species in Bengal, in the course of a hurried trip down the country, and in an unfavorable season, leads us to the conclusion, that many other novelties in terrestrial and fluviatile conchology remain to be discovered in that province, and in the neighbouring unexplored territories of Arracan and Ava. It is to be regretted, that a species of Cyclostoma recently discovered alive at Tenasserim, and described in the Zoological Journal, as C. Perdix, was not described before death, as the keel, with which the shell is provided, gives reason to conjecture, that the animal differs in some respects from the animals of other species which have been described. Persons not conversant with conchology would do well to preserve the shells, with the animals alive, in a small box, with cotton around them, in which state land-shells may be preserved for several months, and when excited by moisture, they will make their appearance, and afford instruction to observers competent to note their characters, to whom they may be submitted. I have kept numbers of species of Bulimus alive for nine months, without any of them manifesting an inclination to come forth: and I have now by me in good health the species of Cyclostoma and Caracolla, which I collected in the localities mentioned in the early part of this paper.

Calcutta, Jan. 17, 1832.

Major H. Burney has favored us with a further supply of minerals from Ava, proving that country to be as promising a field for varieties of the earthy minerals as it has already turned out prolific in metallic ores : among the present series may be enumerated;

1.—Asbestos, from the crevice of a rock among the hills of Tsa-gain; fine silky white Amianthus, crystallized on silicious dolomite, as it