As a new subscriber, I am enjoying the "chat", and learning as I go. I am planning to spend four days in Marathon, FL, to kick back and go shelling. Can you advise of some spots we may look to find some shells? Would appreciate - E-Mail address below. I am from Delaware, about which you have recently been speaking. John DuPont was, in fact, the owner of the shell collection. His mother built the Delaware Museum for his shell collection, which numbers over eight million specimens. Your rumor about Tucker Abbott being attracted from Phila, and then having a falling out with DuPont is the same rumor we use here. I trust that your sources of information about conchology are more reliable than the recent DuPont dialogue! Concerning the sinistral Busycons found north of Florida, I believe the specimens I have been finding in Delaware and Northern Virginia are a different species than the lighting whelks. They are very similar to the knobbed whelk in color, size, etc., but the angle at which the whorl leaves the spiral is flatter. I have found over fifty of these in my brief shelling career, so they are not particulary "uncommon". I have not had time to research this occurence. Sam Tuttle [log in to unmask]