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Other finds were made by Mrs. Tom Shields (Strombus mutabilis); Mr. Andrus. Verne Olney and son (Strombus ostergaardi,
Cypraea cicercula, and C. tessellata); Mr. and Mrs. Bill Mitchell came up with Conus bullatus, tulipa, and spiceri and a
large Bursa affinis; and us O'Briens (Bob, Aline and children Jim, Mike, Carol, Pat, Terrie, and David) had a fine day of
collecting. Mike made the find of the day (as far as our family was concerned, at least) with three Cypraea scurra and a
beautiful specimen of Conus mitatis, the first to be found in Philippines (see pg. 3) [image not included].
Others present included Mr. and Mrs. Harold Androus; Richard Schulze and son Dennis; Laurie Sanderson and her parents and
baby sister; Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Thompson; Ed deVaul; George Miller; and Mr. and Mrs. Anderson with sons Leland and Rex who
found a fossil Cypraea mauritiana.
The weather was perfect, warm and sunny, and the ocean was calm. Some members took to the water with SCUBA and came back with
a few specimens of live-collected shells. The only species live-collected that was also found as a fossil was Cypraea
mauritiana. I wonder what happened to all the rest of the species in the million or so years since this fossil bed was
formed?
Here are some clues: The 30 mm specimen shown above [left] was collected by Bert Smith on Maui in about 25 feet of water. The
shell, with its grey, translucent animal, was seen burrowing its way rapidly into the sand after being discovered under a
coral head. The strong outer lip and absence of columellar teeth are some of the shell's characteristics. For the name of
this species turn to page 8, column 3.
I agree completely with the remarks made by Alison Kay (H.S.N., March, 1966) and by Harald Rehder (H.S.N., June, 1966)
regarding the evils of over-collecting live specimens of "rare" species. In addition to the need to protect molluscan
populations for the enjoyment of future generations of men, one could cite the potentially undesirable secondary effects of
upsetting natural predator-prey relationships, inter-specific competitive balances, etc.
There is another and much more fundamental philosophical point of view which needs to be stated, however. It has been
beautifully expressed by Henry Beston in The Outermost House (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., publishers) and is as
follows:
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by
complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creatures through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather
magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having
taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a
world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or
never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations,
caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
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