ON MOLLUSCA OF THE WE3T COAST OF NORTH AMERICA. 617 



Kep.p.3o0); and also, not boinj? a place of trade, or even an inhabited district, 

 likely to be free from human importations, although we should be prepan d 

 to find dead exotics thrown ov iis shores both by northern and by tropical 

 currents. In his solitary and what would otherwise have been monotonous 

 life, Mr. Xantus found full •mployment in assiduously collecting specimens 

 ia all available deiuirtmcnts of natural historj- ; having received ample iii- 

 etructions, and the needtul apparatus, from the Smithsonian Institution, 

 The bulk of the shells at first received from him were worn beach njieci- 

 niens ; but afterwards several epecies were preserved, with the animals, in 

 alcohol. Mr. Xantus generously presented the first seiics of the molluscs to th(s 

 i>iuithsonian Museum, reserving the .second for his native land. The fir>t 

 'tvailable duplicates of the shells not occurring in the Keigen collection will 

 be found in the iJritish Mumuui or in the Cumingian cabinets*. Although the 

 whole series would liave i(Aiud little favour in the eyes of a London dealer or 

 a drawing-room collector, it proved a very interesting commentarj- on tha 

 lleigen and Adams Catalogues : it added about sixty new forms to the accu- 

 rately located species of the marine fauna, besides confirming many others, 

 which rested previously on doubtful evidence; and disproved the intermixture 

 of northern species, which, from the map alone, had before been considered 

 probable. 



The collection is not only essentially tropical, but contains a larger propor- 

 tion of Central American and Panama .species than are found in the Ileigea 

 Catalogue. This may jiartly be due to the accidents o^ station, and paitly to 

 this projecting southern peninsula striking the equatorial currents. It must 

 also be remembered that the Keigen Catalogue embraces only the Liverpool 

 division of his collection ; and that many more species may have existed in 

 that portion of the Havre series which did not find its way to the London 

 markets. Mr. Xantus also obtained indinduals of identical species from 

 Margarita Island, and a series containing living specimens of Purpura pluno- 

 spira (only thrown up dead on the i)romontory), from Socorro Island, one of 

 the Revilla-gigcdo group. A very few specimens of Haliotis and of Pacific 

 shells may have been given to him bj- sailors or residents : they were not 

 distinguished from his own series in opening the packages. The collection is 

 not yet com])lete. In consc(]uence of the French occupation of Mexico, it 

 was with difficulty that Mr. Xantus himself " ran the blockade" at Manza- 

 nello ; and he was compelled to leave there thirty-one boxes of shells, alco- 

 holics, &c., subject to the risks of war. 



The Polyzoa were placed in the hands of Mr. G. Busk for examination, 

 and the alcoholics were intrusted to Dr. Alcock, the Curator of the Manches- 

 ter Natural History Society. Neither of these gentlemen have as yet been 



* During the period that Mr. Xantus was out of emplovnu-nt, owing to the deran£r'>- 

 ments of the war, a portion of the duphcates were offered for sale, and will be found ia 

 some of the ^principal culiections. 



103 



