Well Good Evening Tom:
 
    What a wonderful message!  Thought that I was the only person that could
ramble.  You certainly have a nice collection and one that I would envy.
But I look at it this way.  I would like to complete a family before moving
on to the next one.  I know that I have given away a lot of shells in the
past 30 years, but I do enjoy the beauty of these little pig cowries!  In
Vietnam, I remember spending many quite Hours in coral lagoons, with Giant
clams and colorful parrot fish as my constant companions as I poked around
all of the coral heads.  I was fortunate to be away from the action, but
then I was not a collector, but a voyeur.  So with that, my thoughts about
why I collect only one Family.
 
Regards:
 
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Eichhorst <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sunday, November 22, 1998 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: Introduction:
 
 
>> Bruce,
>
>Welcome aboard.  Your envy for the "scientific types" is more than equally
>matched by many of us who envy you your great diving experiences.  And
frankly,
>I for one am amazed at anyone sticking to just one family - especially a
>diver!!  Even when I really tried to limit myself to one or two or ten...
>families I would find some great looking shell not in those families or
read an
>article on the habits of...and I'm off, or over board or whatever.  I
started
>with the intention of concentrating on a few families but trying for a
>representative sample of each family.  Well, now I guess it depends upon
how you
>define representative!  I had a healthy collection of nerites but by no
means
>extensive, until I met (electronically) Jr. Powers and now I'm up to 65
>different species and always looking for more.  The same happen with
xenophora.
>I had about five specimens, talked to Harry Berryman, read some of his
stuff and
>now I'm looking for the oddball and seldom offered species to finish off my
list
>of xenophora.  I can go on with epitonium (Bruce Neville), cones, pecten,
etc.
>All of this because of Conch-L (thanks COA for your sponsorship).  Its a
great
>community and we used to have flying pigs show up occasionally but I heard
they
>all died.  Oh, my original families were strombus, aporrhais, and murex.  I
did
>about 98% on the strombus and the aporrhais but the murex tend to lag
behind.
>
>So here's hoping you get inundated with cypraea nuts who want to trade
(also
>sometime I first tried because of Conch-L).  Again welcome,
>
>Tom in New Mexico, USA