ee ee eye RET ae ty NE RENT 
f 
1 
1 
[ 
; 
ee ee RATED TNI CUPIS 
1894.] Abalone or Haliotis Shells of the Californian Coast. 849 
ABALONE OR HALIOTIS SHELLS OF THE CALIFOR- 
NIAN COAST. 
Mns. M. Burton WILLIAMSON. 
Although the coast of California produces, as a rule, dull or 
sombre tinted shells, yet in one family of molluscs the Califor- 
nian province stands preéminent. This family is composed of 
shells familiary known on the West Coast as Abalone or 
pearly-ear shells. Among scientists the shells are called Hal- 
totis and the family Haliotide. In the size of all its species of 
Haliotide California rivals the world. Japan has one fine 
species Haliotis gigantea Chemnitz, that compares very favor- 
ably with the large shells of California, and this species is also 
represented on the West Coast of the U. S. by a variety. 
Another fine shell that compares favorably with the Califor- 
nian shells is Haliotis mide, the first shell of this family named 
by the great Linneus or Linné, who described it in 1758. 
Australia also produces a large species, but for the most part 
shells collected on other coasts are small, ranging from four 
to one inch in length. 
In the geographical distribution of this family, the “ center 
of distribution is in the Australian and adjacent seas." Be- 
sides those collected on the coast of California and Lower Cal- 
ifornia, these shells are found as far north as Alaska, also on 
the coasts of Kamtchatka, Japan, China, Philippine Islands, 
New Hebrides, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Aukland, Id., 
Australia, Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Red Sea, West Coast of 
Africa and at the Cape of Good Hope, Canary Islands, Medit- 
erranean and Adriatic Seas, French and English Coasts of the 
Atlantie, and also at the Cape region of South America. It 
has often been remarked that “not a single species " has been 
“found upon either coast of South America, or upon the East 
Coast of North America," but, in 1869, Pourtales dredged a 
small Haliotis in 200 fathoms nearthe Florida reefs The 
1Pilsbry. 
