Excerpt from Descriptive Manual of British Land and Fresh Water Shells: Containing Descriptions and Figures of All the Species IT is to be regretted that the study of one of the most pleasing, and, at the same time, most accessible natural his tory pursuits - the Land and Fresh-water Mollusks of our island-is so much neglected. True, it is, that they are surpassed, both in size and beauty of colouring, by their brethren of the ocean, and for that reason, perhaps, have been overlooked by many; yet there are among these little gems of nature, such beautiful forms, and delicate conforma tions, that they soon arrest the attention and interest of those, who once commence either to collect or study them. We believe this branch of natural history will, some day, become much more popular than it is at present. It has many claims upon those who are desirous of becoming acquainted with the varied forms of created life, which nature presents to our view. Perhaps the foremost of these claims, is the fact, that wherever we go, whether it be in the most luxuriant woods, or upon the bleak hills we have but to look around us, among the herbage, in the waters, or even under the stones which lie at our feet, and some one or other, in all probability several, of these little creatures may be found. In one wood, within the compass of a few square yards, as many as twenty different species have been found. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.