OF CONCHOLOGY. 48 



Santa Cruz, where but a small river is discharged, the number 

 known is less than half that of Monterey. 



Carmel Bay lies four miles south of Monterey Bay, and is an 

 exact miniature of the latter, having like it sandstone bluffs at 

 its north end, granite at the south, with a little harbor there, 

 and a small river discharging into it near the middle. I found 

 no sandstone bottom, but the rocks at the north end are per- 

 forated by borers, and contain cavities into which the winter 

 storms wash numerous shells not easily obtained elsewhere, and 

 much more productive than at Santa Cruz. 



The storms, coming from the southward, are scarcely felt at 

 Monterey, but the eddy produced by the Avaves being broken at 

 Pt. Pinos, causes numerous shells to wash ashore between there 

 and the town, three and a half miles eastward, so that this por- 

 tion of the beach is the most productive of any in such speci- 

 mens. 



Numerous whales are cut up annually along here, and proba- 

 bly attract some carnivorous species near shore. A camp of 

 Chinese fishermen, usually living there, increases the number 

 by throwing the entrails of their fish on the shore, from which 

 many deep water species are washed out. Others are found in 

 the pieces of sandstone floated ashore on the eastern beach, at- 

 tached to the roots of the long kelp [Macrocystis) which grows 

 attached to rocks in 5 to 20 fms. 



Many shells have been picked up even by the earlier collect- 

 ors, at Monterey, that were evidently imported, either in ballast 

 or for making shell-work, and though not always easily elimi- 

 nated from the native list, may be considered at least doubtful 

 where not found living or by several collectors. The same ac- 

 cidental mixture is well known to occur elsewhere in all locali- 

 ties. 



History of Previous Collections at Monterey. 



From the researches of Dr. P. P. Carpenter into the history 

 of our mollusca, as given in his admirable reports to the Brit. 

 Assoc, for Adv. of Science, 1856 and 1863, it appears that some 

 of the most characteristic shells of Monterey had reached Euro- 

 pean cabinets forty to fifty years ago, probably through the 

 trade in hides, etc., then carried on with this coast. It is not 

 unlikely, also, that La Perouse, about 1787, and Vancouver, 

 in 1795, visiting Monterey in their explorations, and accom- 

 panied by naturalists, may have obtained some of the species 

 described by early conchologists. The following are most likely 

 to have been first obtained at this place, on account of their 

 abundance and beauty : 



