850 The American Naturalist. [October, 
shell was named by Dr. Wm. H. Dall Haliotis pourtalesii, but 
in the great fire of 1871 in Chicago, this little specimen to- 
gether with the “ entire collection of Pourtales and Stimpson,” 
was burned. In 1887-88 the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer 
Albatross dredged a number of shells on the West Coast, and, 
at the Galapagos Islands, in the Pacific, on the West Coast of 
South America, two specimens of Haliotes were dredged. And, 
what is remarkable, the shell found in Florida from the bed 
of the Gulf Stream and the one from the Galapagos group were 
pronounced by Dr. Dall the same species with scarcely a 
-doubt. The latter did not contain the animal and was not 
quite one inch in length. 
In the Manual of Conchology, Mr. H. A. Pilsbry says of the 
family Haliotide in geologic ages: “Of the genealogy of the 
family little is known. A few fossil forms not differing 
materially from the recent ones, have been discovered in the 
Pliocene and Miocene and one in the upper Cretaceous of Ger- 
many. Others will probably be found when the Australian 
Tertiary and secondary strata are more fully explored.” Two 
species of Abalones are found in the Quarternary or Plisto- 
cene formation in Southern California. 
There are about 85 species and well defined varieties of 
shells in this family. On the Californian coast six distinct 
‘species are collected and also two or three varieties. Some of 
these species are found as far south as Cape St. Lucas, Lower 
California, and one species extends to Alaska; this is supposed 
to be a variety of the Japanese species, reaching the Califor- 
nian coast by way of Alaska. The species is Haliotis gigantea 
Chemnitz var. H. kamtchatkana Jonas. Besides this northern 
species, H. rufescens Swainson, H. fulgens Philippi; H. corrugata 
ray, H. cracherodii Leech and H. assimilis Dall are collected. 
The last named is a deep water species. 
The generic name Haliotis was also given by Linné in 1758. 
It is from the Greek hals, sea and ous ear, but wherever 
these shells are found they have local names. In California 
they are popularly known as “ Abalone,” of “uncertain ety- 
*See Preliminary Report on Albatross Mollusca by William Healey Dall, Curator 
Dept. Molluses. (Proc. Nat. Mus., Vol. XII, ) 
