12 AXEL A. OLSSON 



lecting was then aroused by the quantity of shells and other products of 

 the sea carried ashore by the great wave. 



We have unfortunately no account of the collecting activities of 

 Cuming during his Pacific voyages or if any records were kept, they have 

 since been destroyed. Most of the new species were described by Broderip, 

 the two Sowerbys, Hanley, Reeve, and Deshayes, the most eminent con- 

 chologists in England at the time and published mainly in the Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society of London. It is largely from the supplementary 

 remarks accompanying these descriptions that some information on the 

 localities visited by Cuming can be obtained. These locality citations show 

 that Cuming collected extensively and at such places as Tumbez in north- 

 western Peru; and in Ecuador at Isla del Muerte and Puna Island in the 

 Gulf of Guayaquil, at Santa Elena, Xipixapa (Jipijapa [Puerto Callo]), 

 Salango, Isla la Plata, Manta (Montecristi), Bahia (Bahia de Caraques), 

 Atacames. Northward, he continued on to Panama, collecting at the Pearl 

 Islands, and then on to Costa Rica and Mexico. From my own experiences 

 along the coast of Peru and Ecuador, the locality citation for Cuming's 

 shells have proved correct with the possible exception of one or two species, 

 the same forms being common at the places mentioned; a good example 

 is Litharca lithodomus. This species was described from a few specimens 

 collected by Cuming at Montecristi (present-day Manta) and stated as 

 found in holes in stones, pierced by Pholades at low water. The specimens 

 were apparently taken alive as borne out by the appearance of the shells 

 in the British Museum. Litharca is fairly common at Manta, living in deep 

 bores in sandstone ledges between softer shales uncovered at low tide. 

 Elsewhere Litharca is extremely rare and known only from a few drift 

 valves. 



During the 18th and a considerable part of the early 19th century, 

 the nations of Europe vied with each other in organizing expeditions of 

 oceanic exploration to distant lands, much of it connected with the opening 

 up of new trade routes and the determination of geographic points neces- 

 sary for the tracing of trustworthy, navigational charts. Several such ships 

 fitted out by the French and British, touched at points along the west 

 coast of South America and then continued their journey on across the 

 Pacific and around the world. The accomplishments of the French ships in 

 particular were often of a high order and through their finely illustrated 

 reports, we have the first real account of the geology and natural history 

 of many places. The drawings of Quoy and Gaimard for instance, in color 

 of the living, fully expanded mollusks published in the plates of the "Voy- 

 age of the Astrolabe", are unexcelled and have not often been equalled 

 since. On March 9, 1823, the French ship La Coquille anchored in the Bay 

 of Paita and remained there until March 23d. Messrs. Garnon, Lesson, and 

 Gaudichaud served as naturalists aboard this vessel. During the stay at 

 Paita, excursions were made through various parts of the surrounding 

 country as far as the village of Amotape in the Chira Valley. Notice was 

 taken of the fossiliferous calcareous formation (the tablazo beds capping 



