70 THE NAUTILUS. 



Rachis aldahrce Mart. A beautiful shell of the Comoro type. 

 Tiie most common of all the species from Aldabra. Mostly found 

 on Picard Island. 200 metres from the sea. 



Succinea mascarensis? Nevill. Larger and more strongly striated 

 than the Mascarene specimens. 



Assiminea sp. Perhaps A. hidalgoi Gass.== granum Morelet. 

 Grande Terre. The Picard. lies Vertes. 



Cgclosfoma sp. Plaine Cubi. A Ligntella or Otopoma. It seems 

 to be a new species, but too much worn for description. Better 

 specimens came in Sardina's collection. 



TruncatellavalidaVh. Grande Terre. The Picard. lies Vertes, 



Isidora sp. Perliaps 1. forskali Chr. = Physa cernica Morelet. 

 from Mauritius. The presence of this fresh-water shell at Aldabra is 

 very curious, the only spot provided with fresh water being a spring 

 at Tata maca. 



DR. R. E. C. STEARNS. 



Dr. Robert Edwards Carter Stearns died at Los Angeles, 

 Cal., July 27, in his eighty-third year. He was a native of Boston, 

 Mass., a son of Charles Stearns, and was born February 1, 1827. 

 He was educated in the schools of his native city, followed by a 

 course of mercantile training, and from his earliest years evinced a 

 deep love of nature, fostered by his father, with whom similar tastes 

 led to a degree of comradeship in rambles and hunting expeditions 

 which he always remembered with appreciation. The boy had an 

 unusual artistic ability, and tliough his early avocations were services 

 in a bank and on a farm, when only twenty-two years of age he 

 painted a panorama of the Hudson River from the mouth of the 

 Mohawk to Fort William, which he exhibited with much success. 

 He turned his attention to mining, explored the coal fields of southern 

 Indiana, and in 18/)4 was appointed resident agent of several copper 

 mines in northern Michigan on Lake Superior. In 1858 he went 

 to California, where he became a partner in the large printing estab- 

 lishment of a brother-in-law of his wife, in San Francisco. This 

 firm published the Pacific Methodist, a weekly religious paper, and 

 in the troubled times preceding the Civil War the reverend editor 

 of this journal was obliged to visit the East. Stearns was requested 

 to fill this place during his absence. The fate of California hung in 

 Ihe balance ; many of tlie immigrants from the Southern States urged 



