^6 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



collected by Mr. W. E. Bryant, in these Proceedings, 

 1891, p. TOO. In eighteen months Xantus obtained 361 

 marine species, some of them probably from the Socorro 

 Islands and the coast of Mexico, and about sixty of them 

 were described by Carpenter as new. He states that 

 "Pacific [Polynesian] shells may have been given to 

 Xantus b}' sailors; they were not distinguished from his 

 own series in opening the packages." A larger propor- 

 tion of Panama species were found than at Mazatlan by 

 Reigen. 



The next marine collections known from the gulf and 

 also west of the peninsula are those mentioned in a paper 

 by R. E. C. Stearns on "The Shells of the Tres Marias 

 Islands and other localities along the shores of Lower 

 California and the Gulf of California" (from the Pro- 

 ceedings of the U. S. National Museum, vol. xvii, pp> 

 134—204, 1894). The islands named are over 100 miles 

 southeast of the gulf, and therefore have no relation to 

 the present subject, except that many of the species reach 

 the gulf (about fifty -eight out of eighty -nine). Out of 

 294 in the catalogue, about 200 occur in the gulf, and 

 several others on the west coast. It is not, therefore, as 

 complete a list of gulf shells as we might expect from 

 collections made by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer 

 "Albatross," with its facilities for dredging and collect- 

 ing otherwise. The greater part of the species were ob- 

 tained by the late Mr. W. J.. Fisher, who was better fitted 

 out for collecting than any other private collector, but 

 only credited with about 130 species from the gulf. The 

 Academy's museum is indebted to Mr. Fisher for many 

 North Pacific shells, and perhaps some from the gulf, 

 but the latter were left by him in such a confused con- 

 dition that they can rarely be identified as his. Be- 

 sides the two collections mentioned above, Mr. Stearns 



