608 REPORT—1863, 
species authentically collected and the thoroughly competent and accurate 
manner in which the necessary information is being recorded. It is no longer 
left to the great nations bordering on the Atlantic to send exploring expe- 
ditions to the Pacific. The State of California, only born in 1850, has so 
rapidly attained maturity that when she was barely ten years old she con- 
sidered science a necessary part of her political constitution, and organized a 
“ State Geological Survey,” under the direction of Prof. Whitney. To this 
survey Dr. J. G. Cooper (whose collections for the Pacific Railway Explora- 
tions haye already been reported, vide pp. 597-601) was appointed zoologist, 
and Mr. W. M. Gabb (formerly of Philadelphia) paleontologist. The friendly 
relations established with both these gentlemen at the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion not only put them in possession of the special desiderata on the present 
branch of inquiry, but have resulted in unreserved interchange of facts and 
opinions, by means of which a large instalment of the malacological results 
of the Survey can be embodied in this Report. Dr. Cooper has not only ex- 
plored the whole coast and the neighbouring islands from Monterey to San 
Diego, but has dredged extensively from shoal-water to 120 fathoms, keeping 
accurate lists of all acquisitions from each locality. Having an artist’s 
pencil as well as a naturalist’s eye, he has drawn the animals from life, and 
already subjected many of them to dissection. The slaveholders’ war has to 
some extent suspended the operations of the Survey; but it is confidently ex- 
pected that the State will do justice to herself by issuing, with suitable illus- 
trations, the full results of her officers’ labours. The first public notice of 
the molluscs appears in the Proc. Cal. Ac. N. 8., Noy. 3rd, 1862, pp. 202-207. 
Here Dr. Cooper, speaking of the new species, writes with a modesty which 
is not always credited to American naturalists by Europeans,—*As they 
may have been collected either by the N.W. Boundary Survey or at Cape 
St. Lucas, it has been considered safest, in order to avoid confusion, to send 
specimens or drawings of them to [the writer], that he may compare 
them with the above collections, and decide whether they are really new.” 
He gives valid reasons, however, for describing the following soft Mollusca. 
Unfortunately for French and German naturalists, the diagnoses are in 
English only. 
Page. 
202, Strategus (n. @.) inermis, n. 8. More highly organized than any other genus 
of Opisthobranchiata ; creeps slowly among the grasses in the muddy parts 
of San Diego Bay, looking like a large caterpillar. Not uncommon, 
208, Pleurophyllidia Californica, n. s. Closely resembles P. lineata of 8. Europe. 
“From the distance of locality there can, however, be no identity of 
species.” [?] Numerous in Dec., crawling and burrowing on sandy flats 
in San Diego Bay; none in Jan., after the floods. [Dr. Cooper writes that 
the body of fresh water was so great in some places as to kill the marine 
molluscs for a considerable distance beyond the estuaries, and thus mate- 
rially alter the pre-existent fauna. | 
204, Doris Montereyensts, n. s., 6-10 fm., adhering to sandstone. Monterey Bay, 
very rare. Small specimens in San Francisco Bay, Prick. 
204, Doris (Asteronotus) sanguinea, n. s. Under stones in San Diego Bay ; rare. 
. 204, Doris (? Asteronotus) alabastrina, n.s. Under stones in 8. Diego Bay. One sp. 
204, Doris t Actinocyclus) Sandiegensis, nu. s. Very ‘active among grass on mud- 
flats near low-water mark, San Diego Bay ; common before the flood. 
205. Aolis (? Flabellina) opalescens, un. 8. Common among grass in San Diego Bay, 
205. AZolis (? Phidiana) iodinea, n. 8. Among algz on rocks outside San Diego 
Bay. 
207. Tritonia Palmeri, n. 8. San Diego, common “in same localities as the Di- 
phyllidia. Named after Mr. Edward Palmer, a zealous naturalist, who 
assisted me while at San Diego,” 
