THE NAUTILUS. 



Voi,. XV. JUNE, 1901. No. 2. 



COLLECTING IN HAITI. 



J. B. HENDERSON, JR. 



On the 30th of November hist, Mr. C. T. Simpson, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, Mr. Robert T. Hill, of the Geological Survey and 

 myself, sailed from New York for Haiti with the intention of mak- 

 ing; as thorough conchological exploration of that island as a time 

 limit of two months would permit. Although Haiti has been visited 

 by Bland, Salle, Rolle, Weinland and others, it may yet be con- 

 sidered almost a terra incognita to the collector of land shells. Many 

 of its great mountain ranges and deep valleys have never been 

 reached by naturalists ; even its more aecessible regions have been 

 but superficially examined. Imagination gilds the unknown, and we 

 debarked at Cap Hatien eager to get into the field without a 

 moment's delay. 



Cap Ilatien is situated upon the coastal margin of an extensive 

 plain ; but just back of the town rises an isolated group of high hills 

 which appear to have no connection with the northern main range 

 of mountains. These hills are composed of hard, flinty rock, re- 

 sembling the formation of the Blue Mountains of Eastern Jamaica. 

 In the absence of limestone they support a scant molluscan fauna, 

 and our first day's collecting proved a bitter disappointment. Not 

 more than fifteen species rewarded our most diligent labors, but 

 among these were some interesting finds notably a Lucidella of de- 

 cided Jamaican affinities. 



Leaving Cap Haitien we made our first interior journey horse- 

 back to Milot, at the foot of the main range, where amid fhe ruins 

 of the famous palace of Sans Souci and in the dungeons of the old 



