On the freshwater shells of Tasmania

No attempt has yet been made to arrange the freshwater shells of Tasmania. The land shells have been carefully catalogued by Mr. Legrand, so that little remains to be desired in that department of our island fauna. The marine shells have received much attention from most eminent naturalsts, though a list carefully criticised, with a well arranged account of the bibliography is much wanted. But the freshwater shells have been almost entirely neglected. There have been one or two descriptions of Physa in Reeve, and one or two other notices of species scattered through various scientific publications, but the majority of the shells here described are new to science

On some new species of Tasmanian marine shells

The following species of marine shells have been placed at my disposal for description by Mr. W. Legrand, the wellknown conchologist of Hobart Town. They were all procured recently in a series of dredging operations, conducted by the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, in Long Bay, D'Entrecasteaux Channel. They are eight in number, comprising three species of Marqinella, and one species respectively of the genera. Triforis, Odontostoma, Eulima (?) Neaera, and Cardita. Apparently they have hitherto escaped the attention of naturalists, owing no doubt to their very small size, and probably also because dredging in the interests of conchology has been almost untried in Tasmania

On a new species of Ampullaria

I beg to bring under the notice of the Society a new species of Ampullaria, a genus hitherto unknown in the Australias. Some time since I described all the known freshwater- shells of the island which duly appeared in last year's transactions. Since then I have described a new Valcata, V. tasmanica which was discovered by that most industrious entomologist, Aug. Simson, who obtained it from a creek in Gould's Country. Since then in looking over some shells kindly placed at my disposal by Ronald Gunn, Esq., F.L.S., I have found the Ampullaria which I now describe

On the genus Fenestella

As species of Fenestella are very common as fossils in the Devonian rocks, but especially those of Tasmania, a few observations on the genus and its affinities will be found useful to geologists, Fenestella is a genus placed now by all palaeontologists in the Class Polyzoa, Order I, Infundibulata

On some Tasmanian Trochidae

In the Proceedings for 1877 this Society did me the honor to publish in its pages a Census of the Marine Shells of the Tasmanian coasts. In that list I discussed some of the claims of certain species, but a great many questions connected with the classification I was obliged to leave untouched. I now propose to deal with the names of some of the Trochidae, and the validity of certain genera as regards those Tasmanian species which are included in them. It will be observed that in many cases I have remarked in the Census that I did not consider certain genera as very reliable. I do not know any family to which this is so applicable as to the Trochidae, and for the present I shall confine my remarks to them

Notes on Bythinella, etc.

Last year I reviewed in the proceedings of this Society the synonomy of the genus Bythinella as far as it is represented by the small freshwater shells of our streams. Since then I have had my attention drawn by Prof. Tate to a species described by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard, which from the figures and diagnosis I make no doubt belong to the genus, and probably a subsequently described species; have also had an opportunity of seeing Mr. J. Brazier's type specimens of his Amnicola petterdiana, in which I can see no differences to distinguish it from the shell already described. I was not able to examine this type specimen before, as Mr. Brazier had left Sydney, and his collection was packed away. In consequence of this I was obliged to omit any reference to the species in my last paper

On some Tasmanian freshwater univalves

On the 9th August, 1875, I read before this Society a paper on the Freshwater Shells of Tasmania, which was incorporated in the Proceedings, and appears in the volume for 1875, p. 66. In dealing with certain of the univalves, I stated my reasons for regarding them as true Bythiniae, and for not including them in the genus Paludestrina, of D'Orbigny. Since that time I have been able to compare the Tasmanian shells with good types of the European Bythiniae, and I have come to the conclusion that our shells differ in so many important respects from them that they cannot be considered the same. I do not think, however, that they should be considered as Paludestrinae. That is a genus erected for South American shells

On some Tasmanian patellidae

Our knowledge of Australian mollusca is almost confined to descriptions from the shells alone. Nearly all that we do know of the animals inhabiting the shells has been given to us by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard in the voyage of the Astrolabe, where the plates as far as they go, leave but little to be desired. In the Nudibranchiate section Mr. G. F. Angas, F.L.S., etc., has done good service. But the greater part of the field remains untrodden. I propose in this paper to give a more detailed account than has yet appeared of the shells and animals of some Tasmanian Patellidae

History of Australian tertiary geology

The first person to call attention to the tertiary formations of Australia was Capt. Flinders, who, in his survey of the south coast in 1802, noticed the fossiliferous cliffs of the Australian Bight. He imagined them to have been derived from some vast coral reef. Tertiary geology as such was not then known. In 1829 Capt. Sturt traced down the Murray River, and in doing so came to a portion bounded on each side by high limestone cliffs, which were one mass of fossils, many of which converted into selenite. He identified some of those collected with European forms, and though in this he was mistaken, yet he was correct in designating the formation as tertiary

On some new Tasmanian marine shells

The following new and very interesting species were, for the most part, collected by the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, and, with few exceptions, at Circular Head. An accurate knowledge of that fauna has long been a desideratum, and science may be congratulated on having such an industrious and painstaking collector as Mr. Atkinson settled there. A few other species are from different collectors, as noted at the end of each diagnosis. The list shows the spread of the eastern Australian coast fauna into N, Tasmania; while in the new species the recognised Tasmanian molluscan facies is not materially departed from