THE SHELLS OF THE TRES MARIAS AND OTHER LOCAL- 

 ITIES ALONG THE SHORES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA 

 AND THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. 



By Robert E, C. Stearns, Ph. D., 



Adjunct Curator of the Department of MoUusks. 



In THE spring of 1870, Mr. W. J. Fisher, of San Francisco, who had 

 previously, in 1873, been connected as Naturalist with the \J. S. S. 

 Tuscarora Telegraph Sounding Exj^edition, under Commander George 

 E. Belknap, conceived the idea of chartering or purchasing a small 

 vessel and making an investigation of the shores and islands of Lower 

 California and the Gulf of California in the interest of natural history. 

 Through the generosity of Mr. Fisher, the greater part of the mollusks 

 collected by him were given to me, and became a part of the Stearns 

 Collection, now incorporated into the greater collection of the IJ. S. 

 National Museum. 



Mr. Fisher's collection, though made, as it will be seen, many years 

 ago, has not heretofore ))een brought to notice. Notwithstanding this 

 lapse of time, its value, through the importance of the information it 

 furnishes on the geographical distribution of most of the species enum- 

 erated, has not been impaired by delay iu publication, as no subsequent 

 collector has touched at or visited so many localities around the shores 

 of the Gulf and of Lower California, or if any such collection has been 

 made it has not been made known. Many of the localities have not pre- 

 viously been mentioned, either by collectors or authors. The impor- 

 tance of Mr. Fisher's collection, iu its bearing upon the Mollusca of the 

 Tres Marias, is worthy of special mention; it would of itself justify the 

 publication of the list, for it exhibits more fully the mollusk-fauna of 

 this interesting and little-known group of islands, and includes a greater 

 munber of species than any and all previous publications. Aside from 

 the few new species that he collected, much light was obtained as to 

 others that may be regarded as rare or little known, and again, the 

 detection of so many familiar forms, heretofore associated in our minds 

 with Indo-Pacific or rather Polynesian waters, is almost a revelation 

 and of exceeding interest. There are no currents setting eastward from 



Proceediugs Natioual Museum, Vol. XVII— No. 990. 



139 



