588 REPORT—1863. 
Fig. 
7,10. Mya Japonica, un. s. Voleano Bay, Is. Yedo. Closely related 
to M. arenaria: (identical, teste A. Ad.]. 
8,9. Psammobia olivacea, n. s. Bay of Yedo. [Nearly allied to 
Hiatula Nuttall. | 
to 
ide) 
bo 
CJ tee aol 
993, $ 1,2. | Pecten Yessoensis, n. s. Hakodadi. [Resembles Amustwn 
aria | 3,4. caurinum, Gid. | 
295. 5. 16,17. Purpura septentrionalis, Rve. [= P. erispata, vav.] ? Japan. 
295. 5. 18,15. ? Bullia Perryi,n.s. Bay of Yedo, one sp. dredged. [= Volut- 
harpa ampullacea, Midd. 
296, Venerupis Nuttalli, Cony. [Saxidomus]. Japan. 
296. Tellina secta, Conr. Japan. 
296. Tapes decussata, Lu. |Probably T. Petitii, var. or Adamsii. 
Japan. | 
296. Ostrea borealis, Ln. Japan. 
296. Lanthina communis, Lam. Japan. 
296. Lanthina prolongata, Blainy. Japan. 
96. At the time that Dr. Gould was describing Dr. Stimpson’s Japanese 
shells in the Boston Proc. Ac. N. 8., Mr. A. Adams, R.N., one of the learned 
authors of the ‘Genera of Recent Mollusca,’ was making extensive and accu- 
rate dredgings in the same seas. The new genera and species have been and 
are being published, in a series of papers, in the Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. and 
in the Proc. Zool. Soc., preparatory to an intended complete work on the 
mollusc-fauna of the Eastern North Pacific. The collections of Mr. Adams 
have already displayed the Japanese existence of several species, as Siphonalia 
Kellettii, Solen sicarius, Homalopoma sanguineum, &c., before supposed to be* 
peculiar to the West coast. Unfortunately for our present purpose, while 
the comparison of specimens was going on, Mr. Adams was unexpectedly 
called to service on board H.M.S. ‘ Majestic,’ and was obliged to pack up his 
collections. Enough has been ascertained, however, to prove that it will be 
unsafe henceforth to describe species from either coast without comparison 
with those of the opposite shores. 
97. Pacific Railroad Reports—aAs it is necessary, in studying any fauna, 
to make comparisons far round in space, so it is essential to travel far back 
in time. The fullest account of the fossils of the West Coast of America is 
to be found in the ‘ Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the 
Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,’ which form ten thick quarto volumes, 
copiously illustrated with plates, and published by the U.S. Senate, Wash- 
ington, 1856*. The natural-history department was conducted under the 
superintendence and with the aid of the Smithsonian Institution ; and science 
is under special obligations to Prof. Spencer 8. Baird, the Assistant Secre- 
tary, for his Reports on the Vertebrate Animals. It would hardly be ex- 
pected in Europe that the best réswmé of the zoology, the botany, and the 
geology of the vast region between the Great American desert and the Pacific 
should be found in a railroad survey. Unfortunately, it has not been the 
custom to advertize and sell the valuable documents printed at the expense 
of the U. 8. Government, in the ordinary channels of trade. They often become 
the perquisites of the members of Congress, and through them of the various 
employés, by whom they are transferred to the booksellers’ shelves. The 
fifth volume of the series is devoted to the explorations of Lieut. Williamson ; 
the second Part contains the Report by W. P. Blake, geologist and minero- 
logist of the expedition. In the Appendix, Art. II., are found “ Descrip- 
tions of the Fossil Shells,” by T. A. Conrad. They were first published in the 
* This extremely costly and valuable assemblage of documents was selling in Washing- 
ton, in 1860, at £5 sterling the set. 
