TOMI.rN ; REMARKS ON CAPE MARINE PROVINTE. 259 



valves. Tlie consequence is that whvn perfectly fresh or live shells 

 do turn up, they are liable to be described over again as new. The 

 paucity of live examples is due to the fact that so many of these small 

 molluscs, Turrids, Columbellids, Marginellids and many others, live 

 just below low-water on ground where dredging is impossible, owing 

 to the continuous heavy surf. 



At the present day we know enough of the Cape fauna to be able 

 to say that it has a very large total of endemic species. Fischer 

 estimates the proportion as fifty per cent., but it is probably much 

 higher. In the past almost every marine province seems to have been 

 drawn upon to supply specific names for the Cape list, and though a 

 certain amount of purging has been accomplished, it is still cumbered 

 with these aliens, of whom the great majority will have eventually to 

 be recommended for deportation. Few special genera are hitherto 

 recognised, but further study will inevitably tend to add largely to 

 their number : for instance, ' Cooke has recently demonstrated that 

 the Cape Cominellas fall into two groups, both very distinct from the 

 Australasian forms which have so far been considered* congeneric. 

 Similar segregation may be expected or has already been outlined for 

 the Cape species in such well-represented groups as Triphora, Coliim- 

 bella, Margmelia, AnciUa, Patella^ Fissurelln and the Turridce. 



I have already alluded to the productiveness of certain localities, 

 but there are only a few at which methodical collecting has been done. 

 In older literature one seldom finds a more exact locality than 

 " Cape." The publication of Krauss' " Siidafrikanischen Mollusken " 

 in 1848 marks the beginning of a new epoch, and more recently a 

 succession of collectors, including Layard, Bairstow, Burnup, 

 Alexander, Lightfoot, Quekett, Farquhar, Becker, Turton, Kincaid, 

 McClelland, Falcon, Mullens, Frames and Mrs. Howard, and the 

 writings of Bergh, Sowerby and Smith have furnished a mass of data, 

 mainly from but a few foci, the chief of which are Durban, Port 

 Alfred, Port Elizabeth, Port Shepstone and the Cape Peninsula. 

 From these sources we can now get a very fair idea of distribution on 

 the eastern side of the province. Delagoa Bay seems to have a pre- 

 ponderating admixture of Indian Ocean mollusca, and it is probably 

 just south of this that the endemic Cape element becomes dominant. 



On the west side, however, there is an enormous stretch of coast 

 line, little short of 1,400 miles, from which we have but isolated scraps 

 of information. Between Cape Town and the Orange River we glean 

 some scanty records from ^ Martens and ° Bartsch. 



1 Proc. Mai. Soc, Lond., xii, 227. 



2 Wiss. Ergebn. Tief— See Exp., vii, Lief, i, p. 52. / i:yJi^VA\jt>\f>--o-<it.-i dwixA \ 



3 U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull., 91. ^ ^ \) * 



