138 THE NAUTILUS. 



Mr. R. E. C. Stearns, in his usual thorough manner, ventilates 

 tli is matter of the locality of H. kelletti in a paper published in the 

 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, May, 1881, entitled, 

 "Helix uspersa in California." He quotes the following from Dr. Car- 

 penter's Report on the Mollusks of the West Coast of North Amer- 

 ica. " Among the wasted opportunities of obtaining very valuable 

 information on geographical distribution must unfortunately be re- 

 corded the surveying voyage of the Herald and Pandora, Capt. 

 Kellett, R, N. C. B., and Lieut. Wood, R. N." 



" Here was an exploration in competent, hands on the very incog- 

 nita itself; and yet, alas ! Prof. E. Forbes further states that unfor- 

 tunately the precise locality of many of the individual specimens had 

 not been noticed at the time, and a quantity of Polynesian shells 

 mingled with them have tended to render the value of the collection, 

 as illustrative of distribution, less exact than it might have been." 



The following also from Dr. Carpenter's report refers to the local- 

 ity of some of the land shells : 



"Helix pandorse Forbes. Santa Barbara, as per box-label. San 

 Juan del Fuaco, teste Forbes. 



" kelletti Fbs. Allied to H. californiensis Lea, same 



locality. 



" aspersa. Marked Santa Barbara, probably imported." 



To the above Dr. Stearns pertinantly remarks : "The closing line 

 of Dr. Carpenter hardly justifies the previous remark, ' an explora- 

 tion in competent hands.' " 



Dr. Stearns further remarks : " Binney, in the volume quoted, 

 properly credits H. pandorce to ' Margarita Bay, Lower California.' 

 Forbes' habitat of this species is only seventeen hundred miles too 

 far north, and of kelletti, eleven hundred." 



"Another distinguished author has placed the Lower Californian 

 Helix levis on the Columbia River — about fifteen hundred miles too 

 near the north pole." 



As Helix stearnsiana Gabb is so closely related to H. kelletti Fbs., 

 I will add the following: 



Mr. Binney, in the Manual Am. Land Shells, says of H. stearnsi- 

 ana: It has 5 whorls, the measurements are given as, greater diam. 

 22, lesser 17 mm., height 12 mm. Tryon, in his Manual Conchology, 

 writes, whorls 5, diam. 22 mm. 



Mr. Gabb describes the shell in the Am. Jour. Conch, as having 



