The Cruise of the "Tomas Barrera" 



Introductory 



A SIX weeks' cruise along the northwest 

 coast of Cuba and among the Colorados 

 Reefs for study of the land and marine 

 fauna and flora, and its salient geological 

 features, was the outcome of an original plan for a 

 single object only. 



For some years, as opportunity offered, I had 

 been making collections of marine mollusks in 

 Southern Florida from shore stations to the hun- 

 dred fathom line. This region of the Florida Keys 

 is faunally Antillean, and the identification of the 

 large amount of material secured necessitated a 

 study of the entire marine molluscan fauna of the 

 West Indies. There is no thoroughly satisfactory 

 collection of these Antillean marine shells of 

 moderate depths in the United States and doubt 

 attaches to the identity of many of the species 



