FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 



above presented. I have submitted but a few, a very few, and 

 the few submitted relate only to such forms as have maintained 

 themselves, and increased their numbers and extended their dis- 

 tribution in the regions into which they have been incidentally 

 placed. Of the species thus unintentionally transplanted, it will 

 be noticed that they are generally obnoxious or pestiferous. 

 Some of them are harmless, others seriously detrimental to 

 human interests. Rarely a highly useful species is incidentally 

 planted. We have, however, one interesting instance on the 

 profitable side in the accidental planting of the soft-shelled or 

 long-neck sand clam or mananose, Mya aretiaria, of the Atlantic 

 seaboard, in the waters of California. Soon after the comple- 

 tion of the Central Transcontinental Railway, the oyster dealers 

 of California, many of whom have a large capital invested in the 

 business, commenced the importation of small oysters, Ostrea 

 mrginica, from the Atlantic coast by the car load, for planting in 

 San Francisco Bay, where they soon grow to a merchantable 

 size. This was somewhere about 1872 or 1873. The small 

 oysters were obtained in part from Newark Bay. Among and 

 adhering to them was the spat of the clam, for in November. 

 1874. several specimens of Mya half or two-thirds adult size, 

 were collected by Mr. Hemphill on the eastern shore of the bay 

 where the oyster beds are. Since that time it has multiplied so 

 wonderfully and the environment has proved so favorable, that 

 it has spread in every direction and attains a large size. It is 

 now the principal clam ; it has so monopolized the bay region 

 that the indigenous forms that were previously sought for food, 

 have become comparatively scarce, and the cockle, Cardiumcorbis. 

 and the thin shell tellen, Macoma nasuta, once so abundant. 

 are seldom seen on the market stalls and are not easily obtained. 

 Outside the bay of San Francisco, the mananose {Mya) has either 

 incidentally or intentionally been planted at Santa Cruz, at the 

 northern end of Monterey Bay, and an intentional 'plant was 

 made at Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory, a few years ago, 

 by Capt. Simpson, of San Francisco ; he informed me that it 

 resulted in an abundance of this excellent clam. 



As proof of the previous non-occurrence of Mya arenaria on 

 the West coast ; it may be well to state that the shore from Cape 



