104 THE NAUTILUS. 
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. ] 
As the annual election of officers for 1898 is not held until the 
last Wednesday in December, the results of the election will not be 
published this month. Next month the newly-elected General 
Secretary will have charge of this department. 
RECORD OF A LOST YEAR. 
{Extract from the report of Mrs. M. T. B. From the Transactions of the Isaac Lea 
Chapter for 1896]. 
This year I have found no shells new to my collection, but have 
learned more about some of the old ones. Conus californieus, which 
I found at Newport, Cal., last year in the mud bottom of the bay, I 
find among the rocks, clinging to the sea weeds. These last are 
bright and shining, while those from the bay have an epidermis. 
A learned friend, to whom I refer all my difficulties, thinks the 
epidermis is worn off by the action of the water and rocks. But I 
found them in a deep cut in the rocks, where the high tide covered 
and the low tide left them—a very sheltered place. We are not 
credited with two species on our California coast, yet I find two 
which differ in color and size—one is brown, mottled with lighter 
spots, the other is plain, paler in color, and reaches double the size 
of the spotted one. The operculum of Conus is the merest excuse, 
just a thread, and not half the length of the aperture. 
Under the same rocks I found Leptothyra, with rough, limy sur- 
face, but with such exquisite operculi, shelly white, with a spiral 
line in brown. And then there were the pretty little Corbula lute- 
ola and Carditamera subquadrata, the last place I should have 
looked for bivalves. 
I have become interested somewhat in sea-slugs, and have tried 
to make water-color drawings of some of them, as I know of no 
way to preserve them without destroying their color. 
Two rare shells have come under my observation during the year, 
both from Newport, and both were Trophons. Pecten hastatus, 
which is called a northern species, is occasionally found here also, 
and, though I have seen but few of the northern shells, those Lhave 
seen are not nearly so brilliant as those from Newport Beach. 
