THE NAUTILUS. 93 



Planorbes, thanks to some helpers men, women and children. 

 When I gave them the enormous sum of twenty cents Mexican 

 about eight cents they pretty nearly mobbed me. Mrs. T. 

 said I should have given them four or five coppers and that for 

 months to come every foreigner who went that way would have 

 shells offered to him in the hope of finding another crazy man 

 like me. 



At Soochow I met Professor N. Gist Gee of Soochow Uni- 

 versity who took me out on the canals and lake for a beautiful 

 afternoon's collecting. We saw the river life of the Chinese, 

 the Sampans or house boats in which they are born, live and 

 die ; also we saw the fishing with trained cormorants, a queer 

 sight of which I had read. More important we took some- 

 where from seven to ten species of shells which were everywhere 

 plentiful : Anodonta, Unio, Vivipara ( at least three species) a 

 Bythinia, Corbicida and Sphceriwn. It was most interesting and 

 profitable day. 



Very sincerely yours, FRED BAKER. 



ON THE RETENTION OF THE ORIGINAL COLOR ORNAMENTATION IN 



FOSSIL BRACHIOPODS. 



BY DARLING K. GREGER. 



In 1908 the writer published what he believes to be the first 

 recorded American occurrence of the preservation of the orna- 

 mental color design of a Palaeozoic brachiopod.* In this 

 notice the species described, Cranaena morsli Greger, came from 

 the Craghead Creek Shales (Middle Devonic) of central Mis- 

 souri, and at the time, we had in mind the remarkable fact of 

 the preservation of the original color design rather than a sug- 

 gestion that the markings described were a remnant of the orig- 

 inal pigmentation. Our observations, however, since the pub- 

 lication of the article, lead us to believe that in rare instances 

 the original pigment is retained, in a more or less altered con- 

 dition. 



* 1808, Greger, D. K , American Journal of Sci., Vol. 25, pp. 313-314. 



