William Bligh collected shells on his various voyages, but this may have
been more for the benefit of his wife. Cast adrift in the famous boat,
one of his men suggested that if they ever made it back to England, she
would never let her husband go to sea again. 'Quite the contrary', said
Bligh (I'm paraphrasing here), 'she would be the first to send me back
after the mutineers. She is No Ordinary Woman'.
Her collection was sold at auction in 1822. Here at the ANSP, we have a
copy of the catalogue with the final sale prices penned in, presumably
by someone who was present. The total is 1117 pounds, one shilling and
sixpence, which in those days was a lifetime's income for an artisan.

PC.

Paul Callomon
Collections Manager
Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates
Department of Malacology
Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
Tel 215-405-5096
Fax 215-299-1170
Secretary, American Malacological Society
On the web at www.malacological.org

>>> [log in to unmask] 12/6/2006 5:56 pm >>>
La Bruyère ( French writer , XVIIIth century ) was not  a shell
collector  but in " Les Caractères " ( Chapitre XIII , " de la Mode " ,
2 ) he wrote ( sorry for those who do not read French )  : << Qui
pourrait épuiser tous les différents genres de curieux ?
Devineriez-vous, à entendre parler celui-ci de son léopard *, de sa
plume **, de sa musique ***, les vanter comme ce qu'il y a sur la
terre de plus singulier et de plus merveilleux, qu'il veut vendre ses
coquilles ? Pourquoi non s'il les achète au poids de l'or ? >> . I
guess that somebody on the list could give a good translation in XVIIIth
century English ?
Most probably the mentioned seashells are : * Conus leopardus , **
Conus pennaceus , *** Voluta musica .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
J'utilise la version gratuite de SPAMfighter pour utilisateurs privés.
3518 e-mails spam ont été bloqués jusqu'à maintenant.
Les utilisateurs payant n'ont pas ce message dans leurs e-mails.
Essayez SPAMfighter gratuitement maintenant!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------