THE MOLLUSK FAUNA OF NORTHWEST AMERICA. 



By William H. Dall., A.M., Sc.D. 



The fauna of the northwest coast of America first began to be known to men 

 of European origin through Bering's voyage in 1740, as reported by the natu- 

 ralist Steller, who accompanied the expedition. But the difficulties of trans- 

 portation across the whole breadth of Asia precluded the arrival of specimens in 

 Europe for many years. On the west coast of middle and south America, 

 collections were made by Dombey in 1778, and doubtless shells were sent or 

 brought to Europe from this region by Spanish seafaring men long before; but 

 the first publication on them was by Lamarck in 1819, who also described speci- 

 mens from the collections of Humboldt and Bonpland, made in 1803. 



The first published record of shells from the northwest coast is found in 

 Thomas Martyn's Universal Conchologist^ of which some plates were issued as 

 early as 1782, but which was definitely offered to purchasers in 1784. 



Cook's expedition to the Pacific returned to England in December, 1780, 

 and shortly thereafter the private collections of the officers and sailors, com- 

 prising many new shells, were sold or given away, and passed into the possession 

 of dealers and naturalists in 1781. Martyn purchased many of them and 

 illustrated them in the most exquisite manner in the 161 plates of which his 

 Universal Conchologist is composed. 



In 1786, Captain George Dixon, trading on the coast, visited Cook's Inlet 

 and obtained from the sandy shores quantities of a large bivalve which was 

 used for food by his party, and afterward was figured under the name of Solen 

 patulus in the account of his voyage published in London in 1789. Captain 

 Dixon therefore was the first conchologist to collect in person on the northwest 

 coast. In 1880, the present writer visited Dixon's original locality, Coal Harbor, 

 Port Graham, and found his shell still abundant there. 



From this time forward numerous traders and explorers visited the coast and 

 contributed in greater or less degree to the store of shells from the region which 

 reached the museums and students of Europe. 



The most conspicuous of these during what may be called the Martynian 

 period of some forty-five years from the return of Cook's expedition, were 

 the voyages of the Russian navigator Kotzebue, with his naturalists Eschscholtz 

 and Chamisso, who added greatly to our knowledge, and were followed by the 

 British, Beechey and Belcher, whose collections were well illustrated by Gray 

 and Sowerby. 



The next period, which may be called after its pioneer, the Nuttallian period, 

 covers about thirty years, and exhibits very great activity in collecting and de- 



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