A Banquet For Shell

He Month's New Reading

With Judy Tudor

A Banquet For Shell Collectors

This month, which otherwise has been a dull one for books, least has been distinguished by providing the most expensive iume we have ever had to review—seven guineas worth, called leensland and Great Barrier Reef Shells. It is a monumental rk containing no less than 600 separate illustrations in colour, well as the text to go with them.

drawings have been done by H. Rippingale, a well-known colourist and a keen con sist. The text is provided by ). F. McMichael, Curator of Australian Museum, Sydney, though written with scientific ude, is not so scientific as to er the heads of the ranks of meed shell collectors or even of ers. the technical side, the book has )roduced throughout on a matt which gives the illustrations a one-dimensional appearance, depth could, perhaps, have been :d by using a different variety per, although the artist may >elieved that the form in which been produced is more suited medium he used. Certainly, ustrations have the appearance ;er-colours.

Shell Collecting

\ primitive and civilised man >een ardent collectors of shells. ; South Pacific Islands, shells been a medium of trade and nent down the ages; and most at some time or another, have ed shells along ocean beaches, ecent years, with the develop of swift transportation, more lore amateurs have come into lell collecting field and large of money change hands for i rare species. The first Euro to gather shells along the Great r Reef and adjacent coastlines Joseph Banks and Daniel ler who were with Captain Cook on his 1770 expedition : coast of Queensland, ly have followed in the foot of these two pioneers since, ic waters enclosed by the Barrier Reef provide a selection

of what might be found in the Pacific- Indo area and offer reasonable access at the same time.

Among the shells to be found are many specimens of the Conus family which provide some of the most sought-after shells in the world today, although, to date, at any rate, Barrier Reef country has not thrown up a Conus gloria-maris Chemnitz, said to be the most valuable shell in the world. There are only 22 specimens in known collections. [We had something about this shell in June, 1961, PIM and the fact that there was a standing offer, from an American millionaire, of £5OO for a good specimen. These rare shells are supposed to inhabit the Celebes Sea—so if Celebes, why not Northern Queensland?] Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef begins off the Tropic of Capricorn and continues north at varying dis tances from the coast for 1,250 miles until it peters out in a maze of reefs and sand cays between Cape York and the coast of Papua. The sheltered waters and inner islands of the narrow strip of sea between reef and coast provide the environment where Australia’s great variety of shell life exists.

As a general rule, says Dr. Mc- Michael, the further north you go the better the shell harvest, but north of Green Island (off Cairns) which is a sanctuary for shells as well as all other forms of life, it becomes in creasingly difficult for the amateur collector unless he goes to the ex pense of organising a private

expedition.

The happy-hunting-grounds of shell

A keen Pacific shell collector is Captain Brett Milder, who drew these samples to illustrate his recently published autobiography, "Navigator in the South Seas" in

"PIM" last September).

collectors the world over are the Capricorn and Bunker Reefs off Rockhampton and the Whitsunday and other islands between Bowen and Mackay.

In the legends to the plates, the locality is given from which the specimen actually illustrated was collected. In the text itself, the general area in which the variety of shell may be found is given additionally.

Shell collectors, who tend to be come fanatical about their hobby, will probably not so much as shudder at the cost of this book which we should imagine is close to indispensable for anyone planning an assault on the Barrier Reef or on some Pacific Island hunting ground further afield.

(Queensland And Great Barrier

REEF SHELLS. Jacaranda Press, Brisbane.

Price £ A 7.7.)

An Hour With

Australian History

A RATHER odd combination of Harold Rabling, mining engineer and oil company executive (Vacuum Oil Co.), and Patrick Hamilton, Aus tralian Rhodes Scholar and ex schoolmaster, have combined to produce Under the Southern Cross, the story of Australia’s 170-odd years.

It is given in capsule form and is not intended as an exhaustive history of the European occupation of the continent. It is something, say the authors, that can be read in a little over an hour and is designed for the swift enlightenment of would-be investors and industrialists, visitors and New Australians.

Within this limited scope, they have done the job well, placing the emphasis on the achievements of that short span of years, made in the face of the natural obstacles of Aus tralia’s climate, geography and dis tance from a European Motherland; and in the face of some unnatural ones, such as the country’s penal colony beginnings, recurring wars and depressions. In doing this, the authors have incidentally described some of the factors that go to make up the modern Australian, without becoming too didactic about it.

The text is illustrated by over 60 black and white pictures, some of historical interest; and by a couple of dozen Australian commemorative stamp issues. These latter may be historically interesting but as Aus tralia has a tradition of hideous stamps; they do nothing for the book artistically.

(Under The Southern Cross.

Macmillans. 20/9.)