THE NAUTILU3. 141 



CLAMS AND THE EARTHQUAKE. 



BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS. 



Under the head of " Abalones and the Earthquake," in the April, 

 1907, number of The Nautilus, my brief article contained all that 

 I had been able to learn up to the preceding February, of the effect 

 of the earthquake of April 18th, 1906, upon the marine life of the 

 coast The Abalones {Haliotis) in the neighborhood of Morro Rock, 

 about 190 miles south of the entrance to San Francisco Bay, were 

 found in abundance, but all dead, and the earthquake it was pre- 

 sumed did the killing. Recently the Indians and the Spanish popu- 

 lation about Marshall's and Tomales Bay, who for several years have 

 been engaged in supplying the local " clam " Paphia staminea Conr. 

 (= Japes staminea auct.), for the San Francisco market, have been, 

 it is so reported, thrown out of employment, the bay having become so 

 shallow as to preclude the use of boats, and clam-diggers state that 

 since the great earthquake no clams have been found there. In many 

 instances these toilers of the clam banks have been reduced to 

 poverty. 



In and around Tomales Bay which is about fifty miles north of 

 the entrance to the Bay of San Francisco, the quake was far more 

 severe than at the southerly abalone locality mentioned, being in 

 the direct northwesterly line of the main movement. Dr. Gilbert 1 

 remarks " the only notable water waves generated by the shock were 

 in Tomales Bay where a group of waves estimated to be 6 or 8 feet 

 high, came to the northeastern shore. The mud which forms the 

 bed of the bay, was shifted and ridged and more or less horizontal 

 displacement occurred as well as a marked shallowing of the waters." 

 At Bolinas, which is north of the Golden Gate, and about thirty miles 

 south of the Tomales locality, the shore of the lagoon or little inner 

 bay, the home, when I was there in June, 1866, of Tresus nutlalli 

 Conrad (Schizothcerus nuttalli of Carpenter), was cracked, and the 

 mud near the head of the lagoon was disturbed as well as the general 

 region thereabout according to Mr. Gilbert. The " little round 

 clam " as the Tomales form is called, is a favorite with many epicures, 



1 Bulletin No. 324. The San Francisco Earthquake, etc., etc., of April 18, 

 1906. Washington, 1907. 



