84 THE NAUTILUS. 



A considerable number of Japanese shells named after Mr. Stearns 

 remind students of his labors on that fauna. Among invertebrates 

 of other groups, he discovered Scalpellum steamsi, a very large and 

 handsome pedunculate barnacle. 



SLOMAN ROUS. 



Sloman Rous died at sea July 8, 1907. Mr. Rous had heen ill 

 for several months, and upon the advice of physicians resolved to 

 return to his old home in South Africa at Port Elizabeth. He 

 arrived at Southampton, and died when two days out from England 

 on his way to Africa. He became very ill in the morning of July 

 8th, and expired in less than two hours. 



Mr. Rous was born August 3, 1838, in England. He had lived 

 the greater part of his active life in South Africa, where previous to 

 the Boer war he accumulated a small fortune. The embargo, or 

 what practically amounted to that, imposed by the Boers on im- 

 ported articles ruined his business. He then came to the United 

 States, which he had previously visited and, bringing with him a 

 valuable collection of shells, opened a store in Jersey City, after- 

 wards transferred to Brooklyn. He became well-known among 

 collectors. His shells were desirable species, and the accuracy of 

 his identifications was unquestioned. In South Africa he had 

 devoted his leisure time to the gratification of his love of natural 

 history. He made very important collections of South African 

 insects, a large part of which were unfortunately destroyed, and he 

 also contributed to a knowledge of the molluscan life of the Cape and 

 the neighboring coasts. Many species of shells bear his name, and 

 he almost or quite alone among dealers possessed specimens of the rare 

 Achatina (Coclditomd) linterce, the locality of which is now deserted. 



During the last five years of his life he was attached to the De- 

 partment of Conchology in the American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York. He was painstaking to the last degree, en- 

 thusiastic and discriminating. When disabled by his sickness — an 

 asthmatic affection — he was engaged in studying the revision of the 

 Amphibolidae, and was also at work revising the nomenclature of 

 the collection of land shells., . 



Mr. Rous was a man distinctively strong and independent in 

 thought, agreeable in address, and unfailingly courteous and con- 

 siderate. — L. P. Gratacap. 



