DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF SHELLS, CHIEFLY 

 BUCCINIDJE. FROM THE DREDG1NGS OF THE U. S. S. 

 "ALBATROSS'" DURING 1906, IN THE NORTHWEST- 

 ERN PACIFIC, BERING, OKHOTSK, AND JAPANESE 

 SEAS 



By WILLIAM HEALEY DALL 



The waters described in the title of this paper are certainly the 

 metropolis of the mollusks related to Buccinum, Chrysodomus, and 

 Volutopsius, and from recent investigations appear to have been so 

 since Eocene times. No other part of the world can compare with 

 this region for the number of species indigenous to it. The latest 

 monograph of the genns Buccinum includes 71 nominal species, of 

 which 36, or one-half, are from the North Pacific region, while 35 

 are known from the whole of the rest of the world. To this 36, 24 

 are added in the present paper, making 60 in all, which by no means 

 exhausts the fauna, since at least half a dozen other species have 

 been added to the list .since the publication of the monograph by 

 Kobelt above alluded to. The richness in the subfamily Chryso- 

 domiucc is probably cprite as great. 



There are about fifteen arctic species of Buccinum which are cir- 

 cumpolar in distribution which have not been counted in the above 

 enumeration. Of these nine also occur in Bering Sea and vicinity, 

 making a total known Buccinum population of about 75 species. 



The common European species, B. undatum and Chrysodomus 

 antiquus, do not appear at all on the Pacific side, though related 

 forms have frequently erroneously been so named by hasty authors. 



No doubt the collection made in 1906, when thoroughly studied, 

 will add still more to this series, for more than half the jars have 

 not yet been examined at all. The presence in the Okhotsk Sea of 

 a large number of local species was rather unexpected, as the con- 

 ditions are strictly arctic in this sea for the most part. 



It is noticed that many of the species of the east side of Bering 

 Sea have not yet turned up in the collection, and also that those which 

 do occur on the Asiatic side attain a larger size than any of the same 

 species yet dredged on the American coast. 



Illustrations are in preparation and a final report will include the 

 previously known species and many details which are withheld for 

 the present. 



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