XO. 8 SMITHSONIAN KXl'LOkATIONS. I9I3 25 



Durin.t^- the ihrec months' trip which Dr. .\l)hott s])cnt in l>;illistan. 

 in northwestern Cashmere, he secnred al)out 2<St; skins which have 

 been presented to the National Museum. 



After a sojourn in En.^land, he eNpected to return to e'ashmere in 

 May, and march to Ladak. 1 le also intended to visit Xubra, and <^o 

 east along the frontier to the Dipsang Plains where he hoped to 

 secure specimens of a certain vole from Kara Korum Pass, as well 

 as the little Tibetan fox, know^n to the Cashmere furriers as the 

 " Kino- Fox." At the time of the letter he anticipated a four months' 

 trip during the summer of 1913. 



This expedition, the results of which have been delayed in transit, 

 was very successful. The small fox was obtained, also several 

 wolves, lynxes, and many smaller mammals. The accompanying 

 illustrations have been made from photographs sent by Dr. Abbott. 



^[ARINE INVERTEBRATES FROM THE "EASTERN SHORE," VA. 



in luly, 1913, Mr. John IC Henderson, Jr., a regent of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and Dr. Paul P.artsch, of the National 

 Museum, made a short trip to Chincoteague. on the Atlantic shore 

 of Accomac County, Va., for the purpose of securing exhibition 

 material of marine invertebrates and ascertaining the local marine 

 fauna, particularly that of the mollusca. Owing to the inaccessi- 

 bility of this strip of coast, generally known as the " Eastern Shore," 

 collectors seem to have neglected it. At any event, there appear to be 

 l)Ut few records and no critical lists published of the shallow water 

 shells from any locality between Cape May, N. J., and P.eaufort, N. C. 



The chief objects of this trip were to determine of just what ele- 

 ments the molluscan fauna consisted ; to see how many, if any, species 

 of southern range lapped over from Hatteras, and what northern 

 species still persisted in this faunal area. The collectors were for- 

 tunate in their somewhat haphazard choice of a locality, for they en- 

 countered at Chincoteague a greater variety of stations than can 

 probal)ly be found at any other point along this section of the coast. 



Here there are interior sounds of very considerable extent which 

 are very shallow (4 to 12 ft.), more or less thickly sown with oyster 

 beds and with patches of eel grass, the bottom ranging from hard 

 santl, through varving degrees of hard clay, to soft mud. 



They found also the unusual feature of a bight or protected cove 

 formed by the southward drift at the southern end of Assateague 

 Island, protected from heavy wave action by a long, curved sand 

 spit. This bight has a soft mud bottom, with a temperature possibly 



