12 
THE CONCHOLOGISTS’ EXCHANGE. 
advantages. The time will come, and we 
hope its advent is not far off, when many 
more cities will take municipal cognizance of 
the fact that._public money can be spent in no 
better way than in the erection of just such 
Museums as that possessed by Milwaukee. 
Deep-sea soundings continue to be made in 
the South Pacific but the onus of the work has 
been borne by American navigators. Since 
the splendid work of the ‘ Challenger,” our 
government has been apathetic in making in- 
vestigations in the South Pacific and it is with 
much interest we await the report of the 
American vessel ‘Enterprise,’ which has 
lately run a line of deep-sea soundings from 
Wellington, New Zealand to the Straits of | 
Magellan. The greatest depth reached upon 
this line was found to be 1,562 fathoms. 
United States war vessels will soon survey 
the Pacific north of the ‘* Challenger’s”’ line, 
which was 30° south latitude, by lines run at 
short distances apart. Conchologists will 
naturally look for mauy new discoveries in 
the fauna of this prolific ocean, : 
We are pleased to learn that the San Diego 
Society of Natural History has secured an 
eligible site for its proposed new building. 
Very fine shells of Scalaria pretiosa, Lam- 
arck, sold for $500 in the earlier days of this 
century. 
SPECIAL NOTICE. 
Owing to the late arrival of foreign corres- 
pondence ‘‘ The Conchologists’ Exchange” 
for October has been somewhat delayed, for 
which we hope our subscribers will kindly 
excuse us. 
Helix nemoralis in a New Locality. 
A remarkable instance of hardihood is fur- 
nished in the case of specimens of /eéix, 
nemoralis which were found by the Rev. A. 
H. Delap firmly adhering to the bleak and 
almost precipitous rock which forms the 
Great Skellig Island on the Kerry coast. The 
waters of the Atlantic during storms, dash 
with great fury up the sides of this rocky 
island, and have been known to break the /- 
inch plate-glass in the light house which is 
considerably above the place where xzemoralis 
was found, without detaching the shells. No 
better testimony need be had of the muscular 
power of the foot of this little mollusk. The 
Rev. Delap also found Arion ater, Limax 
agrestis, Hyalina alliaria, Helix rotundata, 
Pupa umbilicata, Balea perversa, Clausilia 
rugosa and several others not identified, but 
in localities not so freely exposed to the fury 
of the sea as that in which semoralis was 
found, 
Notes on the Mollusca of the Bahamas. 
By J. J. Brown, M. D. 
The American lover of Conchology who in- 
tends visiting a tropical region for the first 
time will find no place equal to the Bahamas. 
The climate is healthy and comfortable; the 
thermometer lingering steadily in the vicinity 
of 80° F. On all the Islands the English lan- 
guage is spoken; the people are hospitable 
and courteous to the stranger; and the expe- 
dition is not expensive. Nassau, the capital 
city, is easily reached, and the visitor on land- 
ing there will find a highly cultivated people, 
and a good-sized city embowered. in a wilder- 
ness of tropical vegetation, among which are 
the bread-fruit, cocoanut, banana, the citrus 
family, and many other fruits, flowers and 
trees peculiar to the sunny isles of the south- 
ern seas. 
New Providence, though a small island, 
abounds in much that.will interest the lover 
of shells. The first things to attract attention 
are the large and beautiful Cassides; Cassis 
cameo, tuberosa and flammea; also the Strom- 
bus gigas which in great numbers are offered 
for sale to the newcomer, together with quan- 
tities of the odds and ends of many kinds of 
shells picked up on the sea-shore, mostly 
worthless, yet among them now and then 
some desirable specimens Much of this is- 
Jand is not cultivated and going out of the 
city we soon come into the ‘* Bush,”’ and here 
one’s enthusiasm receives a fresh impulse on 
discovering thousands of living Strophia glans 
which in the winter hibernates and adheres to 
any available place, and often when there is 
