20 AXEL A. OLSSON 



Distributed along this section of the Santa Elena Peninsula are the small 

 villages of La Libertad, San Antonio, and Salinas, which become resort 

 towns for the Ecuadorians during the rainy season in the interior. 

 The small town of Santa Elena, lies inland a few miles from the shore. 

 The Santa Elena Peninsula is the type locality for many of the species 

 taken by Cuming and by other visiting naturalists; most of these records 

 probably refer to the small stretch of coast between La Libertad and La 

 Puntilla. Collecting along the beach at Santa Elena is unpredictable. At 

 times the shore is smothered under a blanket of shells, at other times quite 

 bare. At San Antonio and other places, fishermen setting nets for langosta 

 (crayfish) often bring in a load of Murex and other large gastropods; the 

 crayfish is reserved for sale in Guayaquil, the moUusks consumed by the 

 local population. Excellent beach drift has been obtained along the north 

 side of the peninsula, rich in small species. The rocky coves around La 

 Puntilla (now a military reservation) and at the nearby Punta Camera 

 on the south side of the peninsula are good collecting spots at all times. 



The extreme western point of the Santa Elena Peninsula is known as 

 La Puntilla, a long, narrow neck composed of hard cherty and igneous rocks 

 and cut into by several levels of tablazo. Passing this point, the south shore 

 of the peninsula is deflected sharply towards the southwest to form the 

 northern shoreline of the Gulf of Guayaquil for more than 60 miles. This 

 is an open coast pounded by strong surf and except for a short stretch of 

 rocky cliffs at the west (Punta Ancon and P. Camera), it is mainly a 

 soft sandy beach flanked behind by cliffs of Tertiary and tablazo beds, 

 the seaward margin of a large plain which extends far inland. At the 

 eastern end of this long stretch of monotonous coast, are the small resort 

 villages of Playas and Posorja; across the Estero de Morro is the large 

 well-wooded island of Puna, situated in the entrance to the Guayas River 

 and a pilot station for steamers ascending the river to Guayaquil. The banks 

 of the Guayas River and the numerous esteros connected with it are lined 

 with a magnificent stand of tall mangrove trees, the same growth continuing 

 on southward along the Jambeli channel and the coast of Rio de Oro almost 

 to the Peruvian border. Anadara grandis and A. tubercidosa, found 

 here in great abundance, are sold in the market places in Guayaquil, and 

 the large piles of their shells seen everywhere on shore testify to the im- 

 portance which these mollusks must play in the food economy of the native 

 population. Outside in the open sea of the Gulf of Guayaquil is the small, 

 rocky island of Santa Clara or "El Muerte" frequently mentioned in mollus- 

 can and natural history reports. 



Beyond the Jameli Channel the coast trend turns sharply to the 

 southwest and continues in this direction past the Peruvian border near 

 Tumbez to Cabo Blanco, forming the much longer southern limb of the 

 Gulf of Guayaquil. This is also the north end of the great coastal desert 

 of Peru which becomes increasingly more arid towards the south. At the 

 Peruvian-Ecuadorian border, the climate is still sufficiently wet to support 

 a fairly good growth of small trees and bushes nourished by yearly rains 



