and their csv Distribution. 485 
these, the following persons may be mentioned, as 
constituting nearly the whole corps of conchologists 
in Massachusetts, previous to the year 1830. The 
late Dr. John Dixwell and Simon E. Greene, Esq., of 
Boston, Dr. Swift and Mrs. Barnard of Nantucket, 
Thomas A. Greene, Esq., and Mrs. Coffin of New 
Bedford, Mr. J. M. Earle of Worcester, Dr. L. M. 
Yale of Holmes’s Hole, and Amos Binney, Esq., of 
Boston, whose collection was, at that time, superior 
to all the others, comprising nearly 2000 species, and 
formed, by his donation, the basis of the collection 
of the Boston Society of Natural History. Since 
that time, the number of those who have engaged in 
the study of conchology has rapidly increased. 
By a resolve of the legislature, dated February 2, 
1831, the geological surveyor was directed to cause 
a list. of the zoological productions of the State to be 
appended to his Report then. in preparation, and 
which. was printed in March, 1832. Previous to this, 
no attempt had been made to give the Fauna of the 
State, and there ; no one person, who eould have 
told, with any tolerable degree of accuracy, the native 
animals of Massachusetts. Lists of the shells were 
furnished for this Report, by Col. J. G. Totten, then 
residing at Newport, R. L, 'T. A. Greene, Esq., of New 
Bedford, and Mr. J. M. n of Worcester, who had 
given special attention to the conchology of the inte: 
rior of the State. Their united Catalogues gave, in 
all, 126 species. - & 
When the second edition of the “ Geological Re- 
port” was about to be printed, in 1835, a committee 
of the Boston Society of Natural History under- 
VOL. III. — NO, Iv. 62 
