Free Amino Acid Content— Schafer 
53 
valine. Specimens taken from Santa Catalina 
Island, Anacapa Island, and Mot.ro Bay con- 
tained asparagine as well. Those from Santa 
Catalina and Anacapa islands contained an un- 
identified amino add located to the right of 
arginine on the chromatographic pattern (Figs. 
4,5; Table 2). 
DISCUSSION 
Both Haliotis cracker odii , which occurs in one 
markedly polluted area, and Pachygrapsus eras - 
sipes, which was collected from a variety of 
polluted areas, have a free amino acid composi- 
tion different from that of the same animals 
collected from nonpolluted areas. Haliotis from 
clean water gives a more consistent pattern than 
does Pachygrapsus, Both forms taken from pol- 
luted waters are marked by the absence of as- 
paragine. This indicates that in some manner 
the metabolism dealing with this amino acid 
has been altered. In the case of Haliotis from 
White’s Point, phenylalanine and three uniden- 
tified spots appeared, indicating a more exten- 
sive change in metabolic pattern. The change 
in the abalone is greater than that in the crab. 
This may be due either to a difference in re- 
sponse to polluted conditions because of the 
difference in the animals; or it may in some 
way be associated with the difference in length 
of time during which the animals are submerged 
and are subjected to the polluted conditions. 
The factors of pollution common to the 
areas considered were a depletion of available 
oxygen and an increase in nutrients resulting 
Fig. 4. Chromatogram of free amino acids of Pachygrapsus crassipes from Anacapa Island, a nonpolluted 
