134 THE NAUTILUS. 



which soon fades, to a great extent, in dead shells or preserved speci- 

 mens. They were all dead a kind of slimy mass and they some- 

 how looked pitiful. 



There had been no storm, nothing but an ordinary breeze blow- 

 ing up from the south, and it is probable that an immense school 

 had been drifted along, and where they struck the island, some five 

 miles in length, every one within that distance was stranded. 



I had brought no basket or sack or anything to collect in, but I 

 could not bear to go away and leave that vast bed of treasures with- 

 out taking at least a few with me. I searched in vain for a box or 

 tin can or a piece of canvas, but could find absolutely nothing, not 

 even a scrap of paper. I took out my handkerchief, knotted the 

 corners, and tried to pull out the animals from the shells, but the 

 whole mass was so slippery and the shells were so frail that the lat- 

 ter invariably broke, so I filled it with shells, animals and all, as 

 many as it would hold. Then I took off my straw hat and filled it, 

 and that would not satisfy me, for as I wandered along I found so 

 many fine specimens that I began to put them into my pockets, and 

 I did not leave the shore until every pocket was bursting full. I 

 had on a linen coat and white duck pants ; the day was hot and it 

 seemed to me that those lanthinas melted. In a little while streaks 

 of glowing violet began to show down my clothes; I felt a clammy, 

 wet, uncomfortable, feeling clear through to my skin, and my shoes 

 were filled with purple liquid. By the time I reached the city I 

 looked like an Indian in war paint, and I have no doubt that the 

 people of Key West, who were just going to church, thought I was 

 a lunatic, and perhaps they were not far from right. At last I 

 reached the schooner, took off and threw away my suit, which was 

 utterly ruined, and got my precious mollusks into sea water to soak, 

 although at least half of them were broken, yet, when I cleaned them 

 out, I had the satisfaction of counting up over 2,000 good shells. 



VERTIGO COLORADENSIS AND ITS ALLIES. 



BY T. D. A. COCKKKKI.L. 



Dr. Dall, in his interesting paper in Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus., XIX, 

 has, on p. 367, Vertigo decora Gould, Colorado to Alaska ( -f- P. 

 ingersolli Ancey + P- eoloradensis Ckll.) ; Vertigo decora var. con- 

 einnula Ckll., Colorado. 



