138 THE NAUTILUS. 



HABITS OF ACANTHOPLEURA GRANULATA. 



BY S. H. HAMILTON. 



The south coast of Cuba west of Santiago cle Cuba is a sharp, dock- 

 like escarpment bounded by very deep water. In the cavities of the 

 coraline rock, from ebb water to that just wetted by each wave, are 

 the homes of this chiton. The impact of the waters of the Caribbean 

 against this coast, not being broken by any beach or shallow water, 

 is often very powerful and destructive. I observed that with each 

 successive wave the chitons brought their girdles flush and tight with 

 the rocks, while during slack water they raised, so as to let the re- 

 ceding fluid circulate freely around their gills. At the time of my 

 visit to Cuba I was unacquainted with the visual organs of the 

 tegmentum, and supposed that Acanthopleura granulata had acquired" 

 a rythmic movement by experience and was so enabled to live in a 

 more exposed situation than other mollusks. It now seems evident 

 to me that the megalapores are so well developed in this species that 

 it can perceive the oncoming wave before it strikes. 



TEMPLE PRIME. 



In the death of Temple Prime, which occurred on the 25th of 

 February last, another of the old-time Confihologists has passed away. 

 Mr. Prime was born in New York City seventy years ago, and after 

 graduating at Harvard, studied law but never practised. He was 

 greatly interested in science, particularly Conchology, and studied 

 with Professors Agassi/ and Silliman. In the early sixties he pub- 

 lished numerous papers, mostly in the Proceedings of the Acad. Nat. 

 Sciences, Philada., upon the Cyclades, in which he was especially 

 interested and an authority. His exhaustive Monograph of the 

 Corbiculidse was published under the auspices of the Smithsonian 

 Institute, Washington. 



Mr. Prime was also a student of Genealogy and History, and at 

 the time of his death was at work on a French history. He was 

 actively interested in political affairs, being what is called an Inde- 

 pendent, and in 1860 was secretary of legation at The Hague, Holland. 

 As president of the Citizens' League for good government in Hunt- 

 ington, he took a lively interest in local affairs and was a large con- 



