REDISCOVERY OF POURTALES' HALIOTIS. 



By John B. Henderson, 



Of the Smithsonian Institution. 



During 1869 a series of dredgings were made under the direction 

 of Count Pourtales by the U. S. Fish Commission steamer Bibb in the 

 Straits of Florida. The mollusks obtained by the Bibb were sent to 

 Washington, and thence, in due course of time, to William Stimpson 

 in Chicago, to whose care they were intrusted for report and publi- 

 cation. Before Stimpson had entered upon this task the entire col- 

 lection was destroyed in the great Chicago fire. While these shells 

 were in Washington prior to their shipment to Chicago they were 

 inspected by Dr. W H. Dall, who was greatly interested and astonished 

 to find among the lot a specimen of a Haliotis. No representative 

 of this genus had ever before been reported from western Atlantic 

 waters. The discovery, therefore, of a Haliotis from Florida was an 

 event important enough to inspire a more than casual scrutiny of the 

 specimen, and its main characters became impressed upon his mind. 



Some 20 years later, when pubhshing a preliminary report upon the 

 mollusks collected by the BlaTce, Doctor Dall described from his 

 memory this lost Haliotis, naming it in honor of Count Pourtales. 

 The locality given clearly indicates that the specimen was a resident 

 of the rocky strip of bottom lying just off the Florida Reef and since 

 referred to by Alexander Agassiz as the " Pourtales Plateau." 



In 1889 Doctor Dall published a report upon the mollusca taken 

 by the Albatross in a voyage made from Norfolk, Virginia, to Cali- 

 fornia. In this report he refers with some hesitancy a Haliotis col- 

 lected in the Galapagos to H. pourtalesii and adds a new description 

 of the species based upon the new examples taken by the Albatross. 

 These specimens are in the United States National Museum collection 

 (Cat. No. 96392). 



Two years ago, while dredging from the Eolis along the inner edge 

 of the Pourtales Plateau off Key West in 90 fathoms, I had the ex- 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 48— No. 2091. 



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