64 



THE NAUTILCS. 



consumption of shells by the button factories was from 10 to 12 

 thousand tons — to-day the consumption of a normal year will exceed 

 100 thousand tons. The State of Iowa has seen how necessary it 

 was to do something to insure the raw product for the button fac- 

 tories. To this end through their Congressmen they got the Fed- 

 eral Congress at Washington to appropriate money for the protection 

 of the mussel. With this money they have established at Fairport, 

 Iowa, a mussel hatchery, where they are experimenting and trying 

 to raise the mussel in ponds. They realize the necessity of produc- 

 ing the shells. 



Instead of working the mussel beds until we are forced to hatch, 

 cultivate and raise them, why not protect the wild beds that we 

 have, and harvest the crop that they produce annually ? 



There is no doubt but this is the better way ; and Kentucky has 

 in its boundary the major portion of the Ohio river with 90 miles of 

 shell beds. Protect them and save this raw product for the button 

 industry. It is valuable to Kentucky and to the whole world. 

 This is the right way — take the lead, and the other states will follow. 



FRESH-WATER MOLLUSCA LIVING OUT OF THE WATER. 



BT V. STERKI. 



Aplexct hypnorum (L.) and Sphcerium occidentale Pme. are well 

 known examples of mollusks living at places where water stands only 

 during part of the year, often for short periods in spring, and 

 occasionally after heavy rains. The last named species appears to 

 be especially well adapted to that kind of habitat, and even recently 

 discharged young mussels have often been found living on apparently 

 quite dry soil under a thin layer of dead leaves. It is also known 

 that small Lymnaea, and Pomatiopsis are ofter found crawling out of 

 water. 



Fresh-water mollusks of almost all groups bury themselves in the 

 soil, with the disappearance of surface water, and survive for shorter 

 or longer periods. But quite a number of pulmonates and branch- 

 iates appear to remain not only alive but active and propagating for 

 long periods or permanently. How much this fact has to do with 



