REPORT ON THE TURTON COLLECTION OF SOUTH AFRICAN 

 MARINE MOLLUSKS, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES ON OTHER 

 SOUTH AFRICAN SHELLS CONTAINED IN THE UNITED 

 STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



By Paul Bartsch, 



Curator, Division of Marine Invertebrates, United States National Museum. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Some years ago Lieut. Col. W. H. Turton, D. S. O., late Royal 

 Engineers, presented a collection of marine mollusks from Port Alfred 

 to the United States National Museum with a request for identification 

 and report. The many duties of the staff of the Division of Mollusks 

 and the absence of critically identified material from South Africa 

 for comparison, rendered progress upon this report rather slow. 

 About the time that the first sending was worked up, a second one 

 arrived, and finally a third, each requiring a revision of the previous 

 report. While this does not show in the text of the present paper, 

 it will explain why the figures on the plates which accompany this 

 report are not always in accord, so far as sequence is concerned, with 

 the systematic arrangement of the text. It also explains why the 

 type of illustrations used is not uniform, the fine drawings being part 

 of the report as first prepared, while the photographic method of 

 illustration was adopted later. 



Col. Turton informs me that he made these collections on four 

 visits to Port Alfred, 1902, 1904, 1905, and 1911, staying there 

 altogether 16 months. " The shells," he says further, "were all found 

 within 10 miles of the village and were secured on the beach, without 

 either dredging or diving." Judging from the fact that in many 

 cases a single specimen only was secured, it seems quite possible that 

 if equally careful collecting were continued in this place, especially 

 if supplemented by dredging, many additions might be made to the 

 already rather remarkable fist. 



