140 THE NAUTILUS. 
California: “I have discovered that the sunshine has much to do 
with finding shells, as they come up much more readily on a warm 
day than on a cold cloudy one. Even these little creatures appear 
to love the sunshine.” Is this the experience of other collectors 
during the winter? 
ALONG THE DAMARISCOTTA. 
[Report of Mrs. E. P. Wentworth. From the Transactions of the Isaac Lea Con- 
chological Chapter for 1895.] 
The banks of one of the loveliest rivers in Maine have been the 
principal scene of my “shelling trips” this year, and I shall make 
these trips the basis of my report. The first warm days in May 
found me taking advantage of the low tides. I was not sanguine 
enough to hope to find new species, and the object of my search was 
merely to lay in a store of Natica heros var. triseriata, Nassa obsoleta 
(large uneroded specimens) and to find, if possible, the Skenea plan- 
orbis which so far, has eluded my diligent search. Armed with a 
wooden tooth-pick, collecting bottle and tin dish, I advanced upon 
the unsuspecting mollusks. I found quantities of Naticas under- 
neath the sea-weed, crawling on the surface of the mud which coated 
the rocks covered by the sea-weed, and thousands of Nassas crawl- 
ing on the mud near the low water mark. The Nassa in the water 
were waving their siphons in the air as if signaling to one another, 
but I knew they were only feeding in their own peculiar fashion. 
On turning over some small flat stones near low water mark my 
cup of joy ran over, for there, clinging to the edges and under sides 
of the stones, were the long looked for Skeneas and associated with 
them many of the graceful little Rissoa minuta. 
At this period of my search the wisdom of taking a wooden tooth- 
pick instead of a larger and more dangerous weapon was impressed 
upon me, for it was the most convenient instrument imaginable for 
transferring these tiny mollusks to the collecting bottle. Before the 
tide turned I had hundreds of specimens, but, better than the shells 
was the consciousness that now I knew where to find Skeneas. I 
also found an Acmeea testudinalis Mull. clinging to an old bone, and 
although it was only moderate size and so fragile that I broke the 
edges in dislodging it, I carried it home in triumph, for it was the 
first one I had found in this river. 
