THE NAUTILUS. 5 
CAST UP BY THE SEA. 
BY E. W. ROPER, REVERE, MASS. 
While cleaning up the trophies of a recent successful trip to the 
beach, I wondered if my fellow shell cullecters, who live near the sea- 
Shore, appreciate the need of closely following up the storms. It is 
not enough to go occasionally. The beach ought to be searched 
every time a strong on-shore wind brings ina heavy surf. And the 
visit ought to be made at the first low tide. Another flood tide with 
change of wind may bury the most precious treasures under the 
sand. I may go nineteen times to the three-mile beach near my 
home, and get nothing new, although I should never come home 
empty handed ; but on the twentieth visit a shell is found of a species 
I have not before collected. Once it was a little red Margarita 
undulata ; and again a Bela harpularia. Only the enthusiastic col- 
lector knows the peculiar pleasure of such discoveries, and only the 
collector experiences a pang at the sight of some rare shell hopelessly 
broken, as I have many times seen the fragile Thracia conradi. The 
latter and other bivalves live beyond low-water mark, very likely 
so deep in the sand that a dredge would pass over them. But in a 
heavy easterly gale the great breakers, pounding on the outer bar at 
low tide, plow up their home, and rolling over and over, the helpless 
shells are brought to shore by the incoming tide. It is noticeable 
that seldom do two storms bring in a similar class of shells. 
I remember one gale which literally strewed the beach with tens 
of thousands of the “ little amethystine gems” which Totten called 
Venus gemma. Another time the razor shells and the pretty Mach- 
era costata will suffer, and again the prevailing species will be Lun- 
atia, Buceinum and Fusus. Eight times, in as many years, I have 
found the large Solemya borealis, twice alive. The little S. velum ig 
more common. Once I captured a living Pecten tenuwicostatus of 
large size. How violently he opened and shut his shell when placed 
in a shallow pan of fresh water! But in spite of assiduous collecting 
I can note less than seventy marine shells found in Revere. Doubt- 
less collectors on more southern shores can find a greater variety. 
GENUS MAKING. 
BY CHAS. T. SIMPSON, TAGGART, MO. 
Genus making is the fashion now-a-days with a certain school of 
conchologists. Parties addicted to this work have access to good 
