THE NAUTILUS. 31 
Revere, Mass. Mr. Roper is now in Pasadena, Cal. He was one of 
the founders of our chapter. One of his contributions to the Trans- 
actions of the chapter in its early days was an interesting paper on 
‘“‘ Studies in the Genera Spherium and Pisidium,” in 1889. 
Mr. J. J. White, of Rockledge, Florida, has gone to Frankfort, 
Mich. for the summer months. The Vol. of Transactions should be 
sent to him at the latter address. 
One of our valued members, in a letter, tells of a unique way in 
which devil-fish are caught by some foreigners. The following is an 
extract from the letter, written from San Diego County, Cal.; “ We 
met two men and a woman, apparently Portuguese and from La 
Playa, who were making a collection of devil-fish. One of the men 
carried a pail of lime water, and when they came to a devil-fish 
residence, he would pour half a pint or so of the lime water into the 
hole, and await developments. And they would come every time, 
too. It would be a very short time till the devil-fish would come 
squirming out of his hole, to get away from the lime, and be picked 
up by the men, thrown down on the rocks two or three times, until 
he was partially stunned, and then put with his fellows in a pail 
carried for the purpose. We watched the proceedings two or three 
times, and G. asked what they were going to do with them; ‘eat 
them, they are fine,’ was the astounding answer. It sounded like 
the biggest kind of a joke, but the people did not look or act so.” 
As the Chinese are said to eat these mollusks there is no doubt they 
were in earnest. How they could locate the Octopus in each hole, 
is, to the writer, a mystery. 
FLORIDA SHELLS. 
[Extract from the report of Mr. J. J. White. From the Transactions of the Isaac 
Lea Conchological Chapter for 1896.] 
Business calling me to Miami and Palm Beach in July, I deter- 
mined not to let so fine an opportunity for collecting pass without 
improving it. After concluding my business at Miami and Cocoa- 
nut Grove, I started out to hunt for the beautiful Orthalicus undatus 
Brug. and Liguus fasciatus Mill, but much to my regret was 
soon compelled to stop my search on account of the myriads of 
mosquitoes which infested the dense hummocks in which I was 
searching. I only succeeded in finding three live Orthalicus and 
one dead Liguus and some live Helix varians. Hoping for 
