> ----------
> From:         Webb, Russell
> Sent:         Friday, January 16, 1998 11:10 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      RE: "true value" and hurricanes- a collector's friend.
>
> Ross
>
>       I am sitting here amongst the seashells that my wife and I have
> killed. Fondling the trophies from the "hunt". Actually it was more
> like manslaughter than murder since we only took them out of the
> water. They died on their own. Most of the shells we have came this
> way-- we killed them ourselves.
>
>       So here I am trying to rationalize my actions so that I can
> sleep tonight. Ross, I feel sorry for you. Because of my
> rationalization, if I am bad then shell dealers must be worse. This
> makes me feel better. After all I have  never been able to employ any
> shell-mercenaries to collect for me in the Philippines. Not that I
> wouldn't--
>
>       More than once I have been standing on the deck of a dive boat
> with my goodybag, facing another diver who is holding a bloody string
> of fish and someone asks "Are you going to kill those shells". I have
> found  that it makes them feel better if you tell them your going to
> eat them. " They make great chowder" or "I spread them on toast". It
> seem that you can kill just about anything if your going to eat it.
>
>       After all, every year there is no less than a massacre in our
> tomato garden. Seems nobody feels sorry for those garden slugs.
> Anything to save those hard green tomatoes that never seem to get
> ripe. At least if they had a shell---
>
>       So now we try to hide our shell collecting activities. Don't
> carry a goody bag. Stuff them shells in your BC pockets. Then again I
> have been busted with cowrie snot running down my leg. WHAT IS THAT
> STUFF?? Seems a shell that small couldn't hold that much mucus. "Hay
> mister is there something wrong with you---"
>
>       Well, maybe.
>
>       By the way we do have a few extras to trade. We can include
> recipes and full data including flavor and texture and of course
> request the same.
>
>       Does anybody have plans for a "shell trap". Can't seem to find
> anything that works well?
>
> Russ Webb
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> ----------
> From:         ross mayhew[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent:         Saturday, January 17, 1998 8:23 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: "true value" and hurricanes- a collector's friend.
>
> Am i being collectively ignored, or does anybody else agree with me
> that
> a shell in a collection can mean many things to the collector,
> scientist
> or educator, even if its data is less than perfect??  Let's not make
> people with "non-purist" attititudes regarding  our hobby/passion feel
> badly  or that their collections are somehow "inferior" to absolutely
> "environmentally-friendly" collections with great data for every
> shell!!  I have a streak of elitism myself, but a few of the recent
> posts here, have sustaatially diminished it.
>         Yes, shells conveniently tossed up on the shore by hurricanes
> ar
> eminantly collectable- one can often obtain some very interesting
> species  in this manner.  Good "dead-collected" specimens are only
> differnt from live-collected ones in the amount of data they possess,
> and the strong  bias in the shell world against dead-collected
> specimens
> has always struck me as being a bit "elitist".  With a rare species
> especially, sometimes a dead one is all you might ever get, or be able
> to afford.
>
> -Ross Mayhew,
>                                 your "not-quite-ideal-but-trying-hard"
> Schooner Specimen dealer.
>
>