132 THE NAUTILUS. 



HENHY M. EDSON. 



We deeply rejjret to announce the tragic deatl) of Henry ]M. Edson, 

 of Palo Alto, California. In aliglitinj!; liastily from a car lie was 

 striK'k by a passing train, death resulting from the injuries received. 

 He was lio years of age and a native of New York. He had served 

 in the army in the Philippines and received an honorable discharge. 

 Of late years he became greatly interested in the study of mollusks, 

 contributing a number of articles to The Nautilus. His genial 

 disposition won him many warm friends. 



NOTES. 



Modiolus demissus var. pljcatulus Lam., in Brookline, 

 Mass. Until two or three years ago this marine shell lived in a 

 little piece of marsh at Cottage Farm, along the south side of Com- 

 monwealth avenue, between Essex and St. Paul streets, the marsh 

 having an outlet under Commonwealth avenue and the Boston and 

 Albany Railroad into the Charles River. The first improvement 

 detrimental to the life of the mussels was the buihling of the dam 

 forming the Charles River basin and shutting out the saltwater from 

 that part of the river. The persistent oiling of the ditches to destroy 

 mosquitoes, and finally a public dump preliminary to forming a 

 street, has so polluted the marsh as to undoubtedly cause their death. 



C. W. Johnson. 



Polygtralaw^. — While examining some Pofygyra lava Lewis, 

 collected by Herbert H. Smith at Woodstock, Bibb county, Ala., I 

 noticed that they are covered with very fine, short hairs arranged in 

 diagonal rows. As this character is not mentioned in the descrip- 

 tion given in Binney's '• Manual," p. 317, I examined four adults 

 and one young in the Dr. James Lewis collection from Hayesville, 

 N. C, and, while the shells have the appearance of being weathered, 

 a magnification of 10 diameters showed the hair-scars. Perfectly 

 fresh specimens have a beautiful silky lustre and the embryonic 

 whorls are densely granulated like the Stenotremas. 



George H. Clapp. 



