THE NAUTILUS. 47 



GENERAL NOTES. 



ViTRiNA LiMPiDA in'Pennsylvania. — In April of this year I 

 found about a dozen dead shells of Vitrina limpida Gould on the 

 bank of the Ohio River about 14 miles below Pittsburg, I have 

 since visited the place and found about 20 additional shells all dead 

 and most of them broken. There were many more too badly broken 

 to be worth taking. A careful search both times failed to bring 

 any live shells to light, and as many of the shells found were young 

 I think the colony must have become extinct last year. They were 

 found among " drift, " so 7)iay have come from the head-waters of 

 the Allegheny River in New York State. 



I intend visiting the place again soon and will report results. — 

 Geo. H. Clapp, Pittsburg, Pa. 



Aegonauta found Alive. — A living specimen of the Paper Nau- 

 tilus, Argonauta argo, was found at Palm Beach, Dade Co., Fla., in 

 April by Mrs. C. Rowland of Philadelphia. This handsome shell 

 is over six inches in diameter. It is rare that living examples of 

 this are found on our coast. 



The West American Scientist for July contains a biographical 

 sketch of the late Henry Chandler Orcutt, of San Diego, Cal. 



A Rare Old Book. — An auction sale of old and rare books took 

 place here a few days ago. This collection was consigned to 

 a prominent auctioneer direct from Great Britain (around the 

 Horn). I was lucky enough to have a catalogue sent me. In look- 

 ing same over, I found only one book on Conchology. It was 

 numbered 324 and described as " Collection de difFerentes especes 

 de Coquillage, par George Wolffgang Knorr. Both parts, plates 

 giving hundreds of beautifully colored figures of rare shells, 4to " 



I attended the sale and when no. 324 was put up the bid started 

 at 50 cents ; I went one better, 55, then two prominent bookdealers 

 began bidding with me, until one of them struck the dollar limit 

 and ceased. I went one better, bidding $1.10 ; and as they saw that 

 I was determined to get it, they stopped ; and the book Avas knocked 

 down to me for the above ridiculously small amount. 



Upon reaching home I found it to be published in French, and 

 during the reign of King Louis XV — 1765, although George 



