356 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



with Van Tieghem, that all plants are carnivorous, and we add that it 

 cannot be otherwise, for how could we in any other way explain the 

 various transformations and the infinite changes of matter which con- 

 stitute the marvelous equilibrium of nature ? 



119.— NOTE ON THE l!LAM8 OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



By K. E. C. STEARNS. 



[Letter to Prof. S. F. Baird.] 



I have examined the box of clams which just came to hand from Don- 

 ald Macleay, esq., president of the board of trade of Portland, Oreg. 



Mr. Macleay states that they are the Eastern clams, and found at 

 Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory, which is correct as to their 

 original (indirectly) and present habitat. I was aware of the presence 

 of these clams at the locality given by Mr. Macleay, some months ago, 

 and it would be wise to put the matter on record. Captain Simpson, 

 a public-spirited citizen of San Francisco, of the firm of Simpson Broth- 

 ers, extensively engaged in the lumber trade, employing a great many 

 vessels in their business, informed me that he had at one time (or at 

 various times) sent up the coast by their captains a quantity of Mya 

 armaria for planting in Shoalwater Bay, and it, Mya, had multiplied 

 wonderfully, and now (at the time of our conversation, May, 1884) this 

 clam was abundant there. The clams planted by the direction of Cap- 

 tain Simpson were obtained by him in San Francisco, where Mya now 

 "rules the roost," its increase in San Francisco Bay and excellent 

 quality having nearly superseded the native clams, Tapes (or Cuneus) 

 and Macoma; the latter being now seldom seen on the stalls of the fish- 

 markets. 



Mya armaria, as I have heretofore stated,* was first detected on the 

 eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, in 1874, by Henry Hemphill, who 

 collected some rather small and somewhat delicate specimens. These 

 he turned over to Dr. Wesley Kewcomb, then of Oakland, Cal., for ex- 

 amination. Dr. Newcomb regarded them as a new species which he 

 described as Mya hemphilliiA The largest specimen found at that time 

 by Dr. Hemphill was scarcely two-thirds the size of the average of those 

 now on the market stalls. 



Following the completion of the transcontinental railroad about the 

 year 1869-'70, some of the oyster firms in San Francisco commenced im- 

 porting small oysters, Ostrea virpiniea, from the Atlantic side by the 

 car-load for planting in San Francisco Bay, where in a season or so they 

 attain a good merchantable size, and become exceedingly fat and of fine 

 fine flavor. With these importations of small oysters, the spat of Mya 



* American Naturalist, May, 1881. 



tProc. Cal. Acad. Sciences, November, 1874. 



