68 THE NAUTILUS. 
water are the smallest and most inflated, and their beaks are com- 
monly more prominent ; some of them have crowded striae of growth. 
New Philadelphia, O., Sept., 1896. 
ISAAC LEA DEPARTMENT. 
[Conducted in the interest of the Isaac Lea Conchological Chapter of the Agassiz Associa- 
tion by its General Secretary, Mrs. M. Burton Williamson. ] 
NOTES ON SOME SHELLS OF PUGET SOUND. 
[Extract from the report of Mrs. M. Drake. From the Transactions of the Isaac Lea 
Conchological Chapter for 1895. ] 
In January, I went out to Gig Harbor, but the tides were not 
good and I got few shells. About seventy Pterorhytis foliatus were 
found at Point Richmond, some of them quite large with rich brown 
bands. We find this shell at quite low tide, clinging to the rocks. 
in much the same way as Purpura crispata, and its operculum is 
very much like that of the Purpura, only it is of a deeper brown 
and stronger. <A horn is on each one of its three wing-like varices. 
As it grows in strong currents, its shell is heavy and not easily 
broken. 
I also collected (dredged) some young Pecten hastatus which are 
plain in color, and without the lovely spines of the adult. We 
found them attached to kelp. The young are attached to kelp by 
their byssus, while the larger ones are free swimming, and can move 
quite rapidly through the water. We take most of them in several 
feet of water, with a dip-net, at low tide. 
We find four species of Saxidomus, they are Saxidomus nuttalh, 
S. squalidus, S. aratus and S. brevisiphonaria. As the last name 
indicates, that species has short siphons, and it is more rounded, 
shorter and has a stronger shell. I found two species of Cardium 
at Brown’s Point, one being in somewhat deeper water than the 
other, with a rougher, heavier and plainer shell. The animal is also 
different. By the way, how can conchologists be sure of the differ- 
ences and resemblances of closely allied shells without studying the 
living animals?! I am sure I could not have seen so much beauty 
1 Here is where we amateurs may add to the general knowledge by studying 
the animal in its habitat while it is yet alive—M. B. W. 
