THE NAUTILUS. 127 



In all, my collection contains 62 species, and as I examine them 

 from time to time, I not only see many interesting shells, whose 

 names are all as common to the conchologist as household words, but 

 I am also transported in imagination baik to those northern regions 

 whence came the early ancestors of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers. 



POSTAGE ON SPECIMENS OF NATUKAL HISTORY. 



In THE NAUTILUS, Vol. VII, p. 58, September, 1893, we have 

 had something to say on the subject of postage on specimens of 

 natural history to foreign countries. We have there detailed the 

 efforts made by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 to obtain lower rates, explaining that the present regulations of the 

 Universal Postal Union permit such specimens to be mailed only at 

 letter rates. It is indeed true that many countries have Parcel 

 Posts, the charges for which are lower than those for letters. The 

 aim of the Academy has been to secure the adoption by the Postal 

 Union of a proposition offered by the U. S. Post Office Department 

 that specimens of natural history be admitted to the international 

 mails at the rates for, and under the conditions applicable to, sam- 

 ples of merchandise. This proposition was, however, rejected at the 

 last International Postal Congress of Vienna. 



At the International Congress of Zoology, held at Leydeu, Hol- 

 'land, in September, 1895, Dr. Chas. Wardell Stiles, official delegate 

 to the U. S. Government, offered resolutions, which were subse- 

 quently adopted, that the Swiss Government be requested, through 

 its delegate to the Congress of Zoology, to propose to the next Inter- 

 national Postal Congress an amendment to the regulations thereof 

 whereby specimens of Natural History shall be carried in the mails 

 of the Universal Postal Union at the rates for samples of merchan- 

 dise ; that an appeal should be addressed to all the delegates and 

 members of the Congress of Zoology to bring this amendment to 

 the notice of their respective governments, so that those govern- 

 ments should instruct their delegates to the Postal Congress to act 

 favorably upon the same ; that copies of these resolutions be sent by 

 the Secretary of the Congress of Zoology to all governments forming 

 part of the Universal Postal Union and which were not represented 

 at the Congress of Zoology. 



