Journal of Proceedings. xi
for their exertions, on which the success of the meeting had so much
depended. After a short Conversazione, the members made their way
home, in companies, some by rail, some by road; whilst a select band
chose rather a walk across the valley, and through the Forest to Buckhurst
Hill, Woodford, and Chigwell.
Saturday, April 30th, 1881.—Ordinary Meeting.
The fifteenth Ordinary Meeting was held at the head-quarters at
7 o'clock, the President in the chair.
Donations of books, pamphlets, and periodicals, etc. (exclusive of
"Exchanges") were announced from Mr. B. G.Cole (2 vols.), Mr. W.
Cole (16 vols, and numerous pamphlets, (Se.), Mr. P. Copland (0 vols.,
with the 'Zoologist' and 'Journal of Botany,' monthly), Edinburgh
Geological Society (3 vols.), Mr. G. S. Gibson, Mr. J. E. Harting (3 vols.),
Mr. A. Lockyer (3 vols.), Mr. G. H. Lockyer, Mr. F. T. Lockyer, and Mr.
W. White (pamphlet and map). A unanimous vote of thanks to the
donors was passed.
The following gentlemen were elected members of the club :—Charles
A. B. Brooker, Henry Bliss, Frederick W. Cory, M.R.C.S., F.M.S., &c,
John Chambers, M.R.C.S., &c, Rev. Albert Hughes, M.A., Thomas King,
J. W. Lawson, G. C. Locket, Rev. A. Gray Maitland, F.R.G.S., Benjamin
Newling, M. Whiteley Williams, F.C.S., F.I.C.
On the motion of the Secretary, it was agreed that Mr. James Fletcher,
President of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club, who was about to visit
England, should be admitted to the full privileges of membership during
his stay in this country.
The Secretary said that Mr. W. H. Dalton, F.G.S., had asked him
whether any member could record Cyclostoma elegans as now living in
Essex. Mr. Dalton wrote :—" I have found it, and so has Mr. Christy,
abundantly in very modern alluvium and spring-peat, but never living,
and I fear it is extinct. Query, from what cause..... I have found
Cyclostoma in peaty alluvium at Rivenhall (Witham, Essex), and Worm-
ingford (Nayland, Suffolk) ; and Mr. Rowe, of Felsted, sent me a very
recent looking specimen from surface-soil there, but I never could hear of
it living in Essex. The chalky boulder-clay is quite calcareous enough
for it, but there may have been some slight alteration of environment to
extinguish it lately. Achatina acicula, supposed to be rare, is very
common in South Essex. A good habitat for the dead shells (Hibernia
dictu!) being ant-hills in grass-land (Formica flava or rufa). The same
heap should be looked over frequently, as the shells are worked out by rain
to the surface."
Mr. Walter Crouch (who brought up some fine specimens of Cyclostoma
for exhibition), said he had never found the shell in Essex either living
or dead, nor had he heard of specimens being found in the county. It