Bescription of a Collection of Fossils, made ly Doctor Antonio Raimondi in Peru. 



By Wm. M. Gabb. i ^ 1 *] 



Skveral years ago Dr. Antonio Kaimondi, of Lima, Peru, sent me a fine 'series 

 of fossils collected by himself during a detailed study of that Republic, and which 

 he assured me, in the accompanying letter, had extended over a period of eighteen 

 years. He desired me to study and describe them; but almost uninterrupted pro- 

 fessional engagements have never allowed me time to take them in hand. In the 

 Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, 1867, p. 359, I pub- 

 lished a translation of a part of Dr. Raimondi's letter, giving a hasty sketch of the 

 geology of the country; and in the American Journal of Conchology, vol. v, p. 25, T 

 published what was intended as the first of a series of papers on the subject; then 

 describing the Tertiary fossils. Since then I have never had the opportunity of 

 resuming the work until now. 



So little has been written on South American palseontology that it may be 

 advisable to give here a list of the papers, scattered as they are in books of travel 

 and periodicals, American and European. The following list may not be perfect, 

 but includes all the works I have consulted, and in fact all with which I am 

 acquainted, bearing on the question. I have appended the list of papers, together 

 with as complete a review as possible of the fossils, as an appendix to this memoir, 

 and trust that this work, not the most agreeable in its character, may be of use to 

 those who follow me. In revising the species, I have compared each in a genus with 

 all of its congeners, and have endeavored, so far as the information was available, to 

 revise the generic references. Without specimens, this is of course always unsat- 

 isfactory, and, while I have been able to be positive in many cases, there are many 

 others where it was impossible to be accurate. I have been fortunate enough to 

 obtain access to the types of Dr. Isaac Lea's paper in the Transactions of the 

 American Philosophical Society, and thereby correct several errors into which 



subsequent students have fallen. 



( 263 ) 



