PACIFIC EXPLORATION: H. A. PILSBRY 
433 
Many of the species have a wide distribution on different islands or 
different groups. To be found in any coconut grove, hiding under 
leaves or wood to which they stick fast in dry weather, they might easily 
be carried about by human agency. Some groups of small operculate 
snails, such as Truncatella, live only near the sea, where the salt breeze 
blows. These seem particularly adapted to distribution by flotsam, 
yet even they fail on the more outlying islands, some of which have 
rich faunas of forest snails. The atoll faunas are poor. Thus, Funafuti 
has 7 species, Palmyra 1 ; none being pecuHar to these islands. Contrast 
Hawaii, with over 800 species on the 8 islands, or the far less explored 
Society group with over 100. 
Except in Hawaii, such investigation as is needed in the Pacific is 
beyond the reach of the individual naturaHst. It must be done soon, 
or much of the data will surely be lost forever. The introduction of 
continental plants and insects, particularly the all-devouring ants, of 
goats and cattle, of snails and slugs from Europe, Java, Japan and China, 
has already made serious inroads upon the native faunas and floras. 
Every year sees the passing of some island species, perhaps a link in the 
chain of evidence which cannot be replaced. On some small islands, 
such as Kahoolawe (south of Maui, area 69 square miles), the destruc- 
tion has already been completed. The native fauna and flora, with 
whatever they had to tell us, has disappeared in the last 50 years or 
less, except as we can recover fragments from the aeolian deposits in 
ravines. Over many miles the very humus has blown away, and deso- 
lation like a lunar landscape meets the eye. Such a fate awaits many a 
Pacific island, we cannot doubt. A comprehensive scientific exploration 
of these unique faunas must be made while yet it can be done, before 
they are mutilated beyond restoration. 
1 The snails of the group Orthurethra best known to the general zoological reader are 
the AchatineUidae, which formed the basis of Gulick's contributions to evolution doctrinex, 
brought together in his Evolution, Racial and Habitudmal, published by the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington, 1905. Also the Partulidae, which many travelers in Polynesia 
and Micronesia have noticed. 
2 The data may be found in the writer's Manual of Conchology, vols. 21-23. 
