THE NAUTILUS. 5 



Carnegie Desert Laboratory are "live wires" in the natural 

 sciences. Also explorers. Exploring begets good health, and 

 good health begets enthusiasm. Also, Arizona is apparently 

 the head center of natural history, so many species in botany 

 and zoology have their beginning here. By the way, a news- 

 paper reporter at Tucson gave us a reputation for the dis- 

 covery of 650 new species of snails in Arizona ! In figures it 

 is well to give out type-written copy to the press. Then no 

 embarrassing apologies to university clubs will be needful. 



To eliminate a limp which interfered with snail-catching 

 more and more, I went into a hospital at Tucson, and a month 

 or two was taken out of this great vacation ; but on the whole 

 a large collection was made. With mules for the high desert 

 ranges and a Ford for the smaller ones, one in the conva- 

 lescent stage may make a good showing. Some of the hills are 

 only 150 feet in height, and with a level desert floor we could 

 almost collect from the machine. At one point it was not 

 more than ten feet from snails to Ford. We seldom walked 

 ten miles in one day, for with the larger mountains and their 

 long and rough mesas we could ride within a half-mile of the 

 snails. 



Within the recent geologic period apparently there was a 

 heavy rainfall (Noah's perhaps), so heavy that the large 

 boulders were thrown out upon both sides of the channel, and 

 thus these gulches are often heavily diked on the lower slopes 

 of the mountain. These dikes are often the best collecting 

 grounds, especially in dry weather; the fortifications of five 

 or six feet in depth and twenty wide are easily explored. To 

 catch a live snail at home in some of the larger slides higher 

 up, a steam shovel and a full equipment of quarrymen is 

 needed. 



On horseback, with Frank Cole as guide, a trapper, hunter, 

 prospector, forester, now a good snail-hunter and a wonderful 

 cook, I made another trip through the Catalinas and Rineons, 

 finding more of the rough-barked Sonorellas. Then into the 

 Oaluras, where we captured a smooth-bark Sonorella with a 

 diameter of 32 millimeters. At Tucson my partner on the 

 California trips and many others joined the party for a winter 



