Hi,

Although I agree with Winston's report on the shell museum in Jeffrey's
Bay, South Africa, I was even more impressed with another shell museum
in the vicinity.  At Mossel Bay, also on the Garden Route farther
southwest than Jeffrey's Bay (on the coast close to George) there is a
complex of five museums, called the Bartolomeu Dias museum complex.  One
of them is a dedicated shell museum, which I found very impressive.
There are a number of "scientific", i.e., well-done explanatory exhibits
of the ecology of some local common species, some interesting exhibits
of historical shell usage in that part of the world, and a really quite
spectacular exhibit on the upper floor of worldwide shells.  Not that it
is terribly extensive, but the quality of the individual specimens is
truly outstanding.  I enjoyed my visit there tremendously and would urge
any of you who spend some time in that neck of the world to take a look.
Try it, I think you'll like it!

Monika
(now herself permanently in South Africa, and loving it)