THE NAUTILUS. 51 



my excitement to grow until I almost feared to trust myself alone 

 upon such a height. All over the rocks, on the perpendicular cliffs, 

 and exposed to the glare of a dazzling sun, were myriads of U. 

 e/liotti, clinging in their peculiar fashion to the surface, all alive and 

 in finest condition of unbroken spires, and that color tone of health 

 possessed only by fresh, living shells. 



But now arose the problem as to how to gather them. It takes 

 one hand to hold a box, another to pick specimens from their moor- 

 ings, and it requires two more to hang on to the wall of smooth rock. 

 Fortunately there was a breast pocket in my shirt, and with a twig 

 I could keep it gaping open. Then with my lips I tenderly gathered 

 them one by one, slowly and cautiously, and spat them into that 

 happy pocket. 



Had any telescope been trained upon me I would only have fur- 

 nished one further evidence of hopeless mental condition, for indeed 

 what sane man would spend an hour, or a moment as for that, fondly 

 kissing a lofty cliff in Pinar del Rio ? 



If any reader of the NAUTILUS cares to take a chance on that 

 telescope down below, and also the risk of a long fall, 1 can assure 

 him that there are still a hundred thousand fine U. elliotti waiting 

 for him right there on the Sierre de Guane. 



BEMABZS ON UNIO VABICOSTJS, CICATBICOSUS AND UNIO COMPEETTJS, 



NEW SPECIES. 



BY L. S. FRIERSON. 



A study of the shells generally known as either Unio cicatricosus 

 Say or as varicosus Lea has brought to light a singular state of affairs. 

 The U. cicatricosus was described by Say in manuscript, " together 

 with about twenty others," in 1826, and published with such others 

 as he supposed had not yet been described by other authors, in 1829. 

 Taking, with his very incomplete description, the illuminating re- 

 marks following, we find that Say's species was a large, thick shell, 

 with high beaks, but not so high as in the allied Unio cordatus 

 (obliquus Lam.), and having a single row of transverse elevations 

 down the center of the disc, and that it is "a common inhabitant 

 of the Wabash river" This is applicable to no known Unio except 

 the aesopus of Green. This conclusion is fortified by the fact that 



