RECORDS VOLUME XII, SEPT, 1920. 125 
absolute was his rule over the people there- 
on. I wondered, too, if there were excise 
laws there, and whether other than the na- 
tives of the place were allowed to land on its 
pleasant-looking shores. On the drive over 
from Oak Bluffs to Hdgartown, I was a- 
mused at the swerving manner in which the 
sturdy and entertaining driver directed his 
machine. The reason for this was soon ev- 
ident, however, vy the many sharp, broken 
shells observed on the road. (i later learned, 
surreptitiously, from the Judge that these 
shells belonged to the species Busycon cart- 
ca and Buscyon canaliculata.) The driver, 
who is a philosopher, said, “It seems strange 
to me that the Government would make non- 
sensical laws to protect cats and dogs, but 
will allow no hunter to shoot these blank- 
ety-blankety gulls which bring these shells 
from the shore and drop them on the hard 
roadway to break them so that it is almost 
impossible to drive an automobile over the 
road because the sharp edges cut through 
