THE NAUTILUS. ^7 



WEST AMERICAN NOTES. 



BY C. R. OKCUTT, ORCUTT, CAL. 



Haliotis RUFE8CEN Sivaiiis. In the NAUTILUS, iv, 59,Mr. Henry 

 Hemphill cites a Lower Califoruian locality for this species. I have 

 also found this s])ecies at the same point at La Playa de Santo 

 Tonias, Lower California, but have never found it or heard of it at 

 San Diego or at intermediate points. Santo Tomas (not San Tomas 

 as Mr. Hemphill writes it) is about 75 miles south of San Diego on 

 the Pacific Coast of the Californian peninsula. 



Helix carpenteri, Newcomh. Dr. L. G. Yates (Nautilus iv, 

 51) refers a form of Helix from near "Indio, San Barnardino Co., 

 California" to this species. If I remember rightly Dr. Bowers col- 

 lected these to the south of Indio at the eastern base of the San Ja- 

 cinto mountain range, in San Diego County, Indio, a station on the 

 S. P. Ry., is also in San Diego County. What I take to be the 

 same shell I have collected in the same region, in Palu canon, along 

 Snow Creek, etc., where the dea«l or " fossil " shells are often very 

 numerous, but living si)eciniens are correspondingly rare. I believe 

 at the proper season an abundance of living examples might be ob- 

 tained among the rocks, as many of my specimens were plainly re- 

 cent, and none of those observed, could I describe as in a fossil state. 

 I consider it merely a form of Helix Traskii Newcomb, but for that 

 matter H. Carpenteri is worthy of no greater consideration. 



Physa. In my botanical work on the Colorado Desert, San 

 Diego county, California, I have also a good opportunity to study 

 the geology of this interesting and little known region, and the 

 fauna as well as the flora. The millions of fresh water shells scat- 

 tered over this desert are well known, and a review of the subject 

 of their occurrence there, is now in press. In a recent visit to Yuma, 

 Arizona, and the neighborhood of Ft. Yuma, California, I was 

 enabled to make another interesting observation in relation to their 

 occurrence. At Hanlon's Ferry, a few miles south of Ft. Yuma, on 

 the west bank of the Colorado river, a mining company has erected 

 a tank with a, capacity of four thousand gallons. This was put up 

 nearly a year ago (September 1889) and has not since been cleaned 

 out, though nearly emptied twice a week. In this tank I was 

 pleased to find thousands of living Physas, some quite large ex- 

 amples. The tank is applied from a 6 inch well, and no shells were 



