Excerpt from Report on the Turton Collection of South African Marine Mollusks: With Additional Notes on Other South African Shells Contained in the United States National Museum

Some years ago Lieut. Col. W. H. Turton, D. S. O., late Royal Engineers, presented a collection of marine mollusks from Port Alfred to the United States National Museum with a request for identification and report. The many duties of the staff of the Division of Mollusks and the absence of critically identified material from South Africa for comparison, rendered progress upon this report rather slow. About the time that the first sending was worked up, a second one arrived, and finally a third, each requiring a revision of the previous report. While this does not show in the text of the present paper, it will explain why the figures on the plates which accompany this report are not always in accord, so far as sequence is concerned, with the systematic arrangement of the text. It also explains why the type of illustrations used is not uniform, the line drawings being part of the report as first prepared, while the photographic method of illustration was adopted later.

Col. Turton informs me that he made these collections on four visits to Port Alfred, 1902, 1904, 1905, and 1911 staying there altogether 16 months. The shells, he says further, were all found within 10 miles of the village and were secured on the beach, without either dredging or diving. Judging from the fact that in many cases a single specimen only was secured, it seems quite possible that if equally careful collecting were continued in this place, especially if supplemented by dredging, many additions might be made to the already rather remarkable list.

In looking over the collection as a whole one is struck by the prevalence of red coloration, which seems explained by the fact that the red algae form the dominant element in the marine vegetation of the region.

It was deemed advisable to render this report more useful to students by considering with it all the mollusks contained in the United States National Museum from the South African faunal area, and While this is not a large series, there are nevertheless among it some very important Shells, namely, Gould's types, Obtained by William Stimpson, the zoologist of the North Pacific exploring expedition, at Cape Good Hope, Simons Bay, and False Bay, Sep tember 12 to November 9, 1853. These types are now figured for the first time, and a little fuller diagnosis is given of them.

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