588 REPORT— 18G3. 



Pftge. PI. Fig. 



202. i. 7,10. 3Iya Japonica, n. s. Volcano Bay, Is. Yedo. Closely related 



to M. arenana : [identical, teste A. Ad.]. 

 292. 1. 8,9. Psammohia oUracea, n. 8. Bay of Yedo. [Nearly allied to 



Hiatula Nuttalli.^ 

 on.o 14. 1,2. I Pecten Yessoeiisis, n. 8. Hakodadi. [Resembles Anutsiutn 



\ 3. 3,4. ( caurinum, Gld.] 

 295. 5. 16,17. Purpura septeiifrionaUs, ^\e. [ = P. cri^pata, Ta.T.'\ ? Japan. 



295. 5. 13,15. ? Bullia Perryi,n. s,. Bay of Y^edo, one sp. di-edged. \_=Volut- 



harpa ampulkicea, Midd.J 



296. Vetierupts Ntittalli, Conr. \_Saxido7niis]. Japan. 

 296. Tellina secta, Conr. Japan. 



296. Tapes decussata, Ln. [Probably T. Petitii, var. or Adarnsh. 



Japan.] 

 296. Ostrea bm-ealis, Ln. Japan. 



296. lauthina coinmunis, Lam. Japan. 



296. lanthina prolongata, Blainv. Japan. 



96. At the time that Dr. Gould was describing Dr. Stimpson's Japanese 

 Bhells in the Boston Proc. Ac. N. S., Mr. A. Adams, R.N., one of the learned 

 authors of the ' Genera of Recent Mollusca,' was making extensive and accu- 

 rate dredgings in the same seas. The new genera and species have been and 

 are being published, in a series of papers, in the Ann. h Mag. Nat. Hist, and 

 in the Proc. Zool. Soc, preparatory to an intended complete work on the 

 mollusc-fauna of the Eastern North Pacific. The collections of Mr. Adams 

 have already displaj'ed the Japanese existence of several species, as Siphonalia 

 KeUettii, Solen sicarius, Horncdopoma sanr/uineum, &c., before supposed to be 

 peciiliar to the West coast. Unfortunately for our present purpose, while 

 the comparison of specimens was going on, Mr. Adams was unexpectedly 

 called to ser\-ice on board H.M.S. ' Majestic,' and was obliged to pack xip his 

 collections. Enough has been ascertained, however, to prove that it will be 

 unsafe henceforth to describe species from either coast Avithout comparison 

 with those of the opposite shores. 



97. Pacijic Railroad Reports. — As it is necessary, in studying any fauna, 

 to make comparisons far round in space, so it is essential to travel far back 

 in time. The fullest account of the fossils of the "West Coast of America is 

 to be found in the ' Explorations and Surveys for a Itailroad Route from the 

 Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,' which form ten thick qiiarto volumes, 

 copiously illustrated with plates, and published by the U.S. Senate, Wash- 

 ington, 1856 *. The natural-histoiy department was conducted under the 

 superintendence and with the aid of the Smithsonian Institution ; and science 

 is under special obHgations to Prof. Spencer S. Baird, the Assistant Secre- 

 tary, for his Reports on the Vertebrate Animals. It would hardly be ex- 

 pected in Europe that the best resume of the zoology, the botany, and the 

 geology of the vast region between the Great American desert and the Pacific 

 ehoiild be found in a railroad survey. Unfortunately, it has not been the 

 custom to advertize and sell the valuable documents printed at the ex^w^nse 

 of the U. S. Government, in the ordinary channels of trade. They often become 

 the perquisites of the members of Congress, and throiigh them of the various 

 emjdoi/es, by whom they are transferred to the booksellers' shelves. Tlie 

 fifth volume of the series is devoted to the explorations of Lieut. Williamson ; 

 the second Part contains the Report by W. P. Blake, geologist and minero- 

 logist of the expedition. In the Appendix, Art. 11. , are found " Descrip- 

 tions of the Eossil Shells," by T. A. Conrad. They were first published in the 



• This extremely costly and valuable assemblage of documents was selling in Waihiug* 

 iOn, in I860, at £5 sterling the set. 



74 



