4 AMERICAN JOURNAL 



lurked in little springs, or among the bogs of the adjoining 

 marshy ground, remain to restock the stream, and the same 

 phenomena are repeated from year to year with such variations 

 as might be expected with ever-changing meteorological con- 

 ditions. 



" Our Lymncea have also been studied. You will think me 

 wild when I tell you that the eggs of L. catascopium will develop 

 Say's elodes I But it is a fact. I have on several occasions 

 verified it. The canal produces catascopium, not elodes. Every- 

 body calls them catascopium, and, I think, rightly. Under the 

 canal runs a mountain stream that grinds everything fragile to 

 powder, fall and spring. In the spring, when catascopium lays 

 her eggs on bits of flood wood in the canal, these wash over the 

 side of the aqueduct into the creek, and if not washed nway they 

 find a resting place in the shallow margins among the stones 

 where the eggs hatch ; the young snails grow up with, at first, 

 the whorls of catascopium, which by and bye become built out 

 into the longer, more voluminous elodes. 



" Fact, sir. I have seen it repeatedly, years in succession. 

 Yet, our venders of species don't care for facts like these. They 

 take the shell and give it a name. I dont blame them for that. 

 But I wish they would get more valuable information. Do you 

 know that I am very anxious that naturalists should be worthy 

 of the name ? It sounds pretty to talk learnedly about species ; 

 repeat Latinized Greek, and say it is the name of such a shell. 

 Is that all we have to do? I think not." 



Mohawk, N. Y., January 8th, 1868. 



Mr. S. R. Roberts communicated the views of Mr. John G. An- 

 thony on Cyprcea citrina, Gray, a species of somewhat doubtful 

 identification, both in America and Europe. 



Mr. W. M. Gabb gave his experiences in shell collecting in 

 Lower California, and was followed by Rev. Dr. Beadle upon 

 the subject of collecting in the Desert of Sinai. 



