THE NAUTILUS. 



Vol. XXXIII JULY, 1919 No. 1. 



AN OLD COLLECTING GROUND REVISITED. 



BY CHARLES W. JOHNSON. 



While a resident of St. Augustine, Florida, from 1880-88, I 

 made a careful study of the mollusca of the harbor and vicinity. 

 The habits of the various species and the factors governing their 

 distribution, which in many cases was much restricted, especi- 

 ally appealed to me. With these facts in mind it was with 

 great interest that I visited the old city after an absence of 

 thirty-one years. Time and the ever-shifting sands have played 

 sad havoc with many of my old collecting grounds, and I 

 looked in vain for some of the rarer species. 



The accompanying maps can give only a general idea of the 

 changes that have taken place. 1 The ' ' Lagoon ' ' of the eighties 

 is gone and there are now two inlets with about the same depth 

 of water on each bar according to the government chart, survey 

 of 1910, although I was told that the southern channel has now 

 much less water on the bar than the other. Marsh Island at 

 the mouth of Hospital Creek is also gone, and the sand bar that 

 was formerly only east of the island now extends to the fort. 

 There is no trace of the site of the old Spanish lighthouse, 



1 Figure 1 shows the harbor and vicinity about 1883, before the St. Sebas- 

 tian marsh was filled, also the approximate positions of the "Lagoon" and 

 Marsh Island. The figures refer to the species mentioned in the text that 

 were found at those particular places. 



Figure 2 is based on the U. S. coast survey chart, No. 159, survey of 

 1910, and represents in a general way present conditions. 



