THE NAUTILUS. 39 



Askew, who is as loyal a son <>t T> j xas MS ever drew Invatli. It is a 

 shame to the to vn that this tort lias been recently torn down and 

 replaced by a sordid brick store. As soon as we had breakfasted, 

 we went to the La Nana creek, where we obtained the new species, 

 Q. lananeusis recently described. We also obtained a number of the 

 most deeply corrugated Q. laticostata we have yet seen. A solitary 

 Obovuria castanea was taken. Numbers of Tritogonia tuberculata 

 were found, but much to our disappointment, not a single gravid 

 female was noted. (This species has not as yet been observed in 

 that condition.) In this creek we obtained some L. nigerrimus and 

 Strophitus edentitlits, neither of which was listed by Mr. Singley. 

 While cleaning up our catch in the hotel yard, we were joined by an 

 intelligent-looking party who gravely asked if the " fossils " we were 

 cleaning belonged to the Devonian formation ! I shall never forget 

 the guileless look' of the doctor, as he gravely replied that they did. 



By high noon next day we were at Rockland on the Neches river; 

 we had taken our dinner, and by 5 p. m. were loaded with all the 

 unios we wanted. This place is the metropolis of Q. askew'ii, of 

 which some examples require a " Philadelphia lawyer" to differenti- 

 ate from Q. beadleanus. The unios of this river are precisely the 

 same as in the Sabine river. We obtained some bona-jide Q. nodifera, 

 a species of the validity of which we had had doubts, but these are 

 now forever laid aside. From Rockland we then took flight towards 

 Lake Charles (Louisiana). En route we were compelled to stop 

 over at Beaumont, Texas; while there we were fortunate enough to 

 witness the striking of oil by one of the wonderful "gushers "of 

 that place. It was a grand sight, the memory of which will never 

 leave us. Lake Charles we found to be a shallow expansion of the 

 Calcasieu river, about two miles wide, with sandy bottom, and 

 covered by floating masses of the " Water Hyacinth," acres and 

 acres of them. Calcasieu river is an extraordinary stream ; for 

 fifty miles it is sixty feet deep and a quarter of a mile wide, with no 

 current excepting after rains, and not a shoal or sand-bar. The salt 

 water comes up 40 or 50 miles during storms, and kills most of the 

 fresh-water shells. 



Those left alive were the following : Q. apiculata (typical), 

 Q. mortoni, L. texasensis, L. hydiana, L. anodontoidcs, Q. trapezoides, 

 variety pentagonoides (new var.), and finally Glebula rotundata. I 

 have in my cabinet two specimens of fresh water mussels (Unto) 



