THE NAUTILUS. 11 



that I found, nearly fifty years ago, Unio lapiUiis, Say, fahalis Lea, 

 attached by a white, silk-like byssus to a fragment of an old shell. 

 This fact I mentioned afterwards to John Bartlett, an old collector, 

 whereupon he related to me the following story : 



"A., a collector of shells, residing in Cincinnati, Ohio, and K.^ 

 also a collector, residing in Cleveland, Ohio, were quite intimate. 

 K. found the above mentioned species attached (as I did) by a bys- 

 sus, whereupon he, K., wrote to A, at Cincinnati, stating the fact, 

 and inviting him up to Cleveland, promising if he came, to go out 

 with him and show him the wonder. A. was not long in respond- 

 ing to the invitation, and the two went out together and saw the 

 shell attached by a byssus, sure enough. 



" A. returned to Cincinnati soon afterwards and at once wrote to 

 his London corresj^ondent that he. A., had discovered a Unio 

 attached by a byssus, and that he had invited his friend K., of 

 Cleveland, to come down, and had taken him out to see the wonder. 



" Soon after this K., being in correspondence, as it happened, 

 with the same London party, wrote to him that he, K., had made 

 this wonderful discovery in Cleveland, and had taken his Cincin- 

 nati friend out to see it. A., it seems, was ignorant of the fact that 

 K. was in correspondence with the same London party, and so got 

 himself inextricably trapped. 



" My friend informed me that A. went by the name of ' Old 

 Byssus ' for a long time afterwards. 



" So much for a lack of truth and candor. When the byssus was 

 first discovered by myself, I, in my innocence of the facts just related, 

 wrote to A. about it. He at once replied that it was not a new 

 thing. It had been found before. I exchanged with A. quite a 

 number of years after this and received some good things from hin). 

 Peace to his ashes ! He is gone now, as are also most of the old 

 collectors of Cincinnati." 



These are the extracts and my only regret in sending them is the 

 fact that I do not feel at liberty to give the name of the writer. 



Very truly, 



J.F. 



Dr. R. E. C. Stearns, adjunct curator of the Department of 

 MoUusks at the National Museum, has left Washington for the 

 West C_^ast, for a season's rest. 



Mr. Henry Hemphill will spend the sumn.er in Idaho. 



