66 THE NAUTILUS. 



EDITOKIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



MARSHFIELD, OREGON (Coos BAY), Aug. 23, 1897. 



My Dear Pilsbry : Though I have had good success as far as 

 fossils are concerned, it has been the wrong season for land shells in 

 southern Oregon. Everything is three inches deep in impalpable 

 dry dust, and even the trees are dusty. Barring a few Helix fidelis 

 and vancouverensis in aestivation and an occasional Ariolimax, I 

 have seen nothing in the woods, and the rare brooks here are curi- 

 ously bare of insect or molluscan life. 



Since coming to the sea coast I have been too busy to do more 

 than note the commoner species on the beaches, and observe a few 

 items of distribution. The eastern clam, Mya arenaria, has become 

 acclimated, and is one of the best and most abundant bivalves. It 

 was introduced unintentionally with seed oysters from the East. 

 The Pacific oyster, 0. lurida, is not now found living in the bay, 

 but specimens (which may have been brought here from other 

 places) occur sparingly in the Indian shell heaps. Unexpected was 

 the presence of Nassa fossata in numbers, I think not before re- 

 ported so far north. A rarity of the rocks at Cape Arago is the 

 black abalone, Haliotis cracherodii, of which this must be nearly, if 

 not quite, the northern limit. Among rubbish on the beach were a 

 dead specimen of Mitra maura, and a valve, also dead and worn, of 

 Tivela crassatelloides. These I suspect to be ballast specimens. 

 The beaches offer a poor collecting ground, even Littorinas are 

 scarce. I noted the following species of shells near the entrance of 

 the bay, though winter collecting would doubtless afford a longer 

 list: 



Acmaea patina, pelta, persona and mitra ; Olivella biplicata and 

 bcetica ; Purpura crispata, decemcostata and ostrina ; Litorina scutn- 

 lata, Priene oregonensis, Nassa fossata, Fissuridea aspera, Crypto- 

 chiton stelleri, Katherina tunicata and Mopalia muscosa; Mya aren- 

 aria, Entodesma saxicola, Cardiwn nuttalli, Saxidomus squalidus, 

 Tresus nuttallii, Tapes rigida, Petricola carditoides, Saxicava arctica, 

 Macoma nasuta and ineonspieua (pink and white varieties), Siliqua 

 patula, Hinnites giganteus ; a fragment of Pecten caurinus, and in 

 holes in the sandstones Pholadidea penita, Parapholas californica, 

 Zirphcea crispata, Adula stylina and Kellia laperousei. 



Yours very truly, 



W. H. BALL. 



