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Triton
The statement was made that C. aurantium is not found on New Caledonia. This seems to summarize the situation although Dr.
Alison Kay on a recent trip to London found in the British Museum a record of one and only one having been recorded from New
Caledonia. For first hand information, we wrote to G. Tourres of Noumea and asked him several questions about the Golden
Cowry. Mr. Tourres is a well-known collector in the South Pacific, has his own boat, does a lot of collecting himself, and
has a wide acquaintance among the collectors. Here's his answer:
"I have never heard of any Golden Cowries being collected in New Caledonia but I know for sure that quite a few were
collected on Mare and Lifou Islands (Loyalty Group) only 45 to 50 miles away from the northeastern Caledonian coast. But no
native will part with one as they attach certain superstitious qualities to the shell. A friend of mine, a keen shell
collector and second to the Governor, tried 'everything' to get one but failed. If he couldn't secure one, I don't know who
could. The only shell I ever saw in Noumea was in the Museum and that one mysteriously disappeared about six months ago.
"I am sorry I cannot give you any information on their feeding habits. All I know is they hide in dark crevices and caves
along the barrier reefs, and I always thoroughly explore such places."
Although Mr. Tourres says the natives of the Loyalty Islands refuse to part with their Golden Cowries, the records of the
"Golden Cowry Register" show that the California Academy of Science has one in which the locality is given as Loyalty Islands
(see Sean Raynon Sabado Vol. IX, No. 9, July, 1961).
One guess as to why the Golden Cowry is not found in New Caledonia is the temperature of the water. Most of this island lies
south of the 20th parallel of south latitude and Mr. Golden Cowry has shown that he is adverse to thriving that far from the
equator.
The shell has never been reported from the New Hebrides although this group lies almost directly on a line connecting the
Fiji Islands with the Solomons, both of which are noted as producers of this attractive shell. Mrs. G. Stephens of South
Santos in the New Hebrides group is a member of the Philippines Malacological Society, so we wrote to her. In due time she
replied that she had made diligent inquiry among her shell collecting friends and they were all agreed that the Golden Cowry
was not found there. She did say, however, that there was a record of a diver having collected three live shells at 60 feet
on the Island of Lopevi in the East Hebrides, but she added "they don't breed here. " Mrs. Stephens accounted for the
presence of these three lonesome specimens by saying "the eggs must have drifted here on the ocean currents." She also added
that the flesh of the animal was a " reddish-pink."
The Island of Lopevi mentioned by Mrs. Stephens is a small island of volcanic origin four miles long with slightly over 100
inhabitants and is located ten miles southeast of Ambrym, one of the larger islands of the group. Ambrym in turn is 65 miles
southeast of Espirito Santo, probably the most familiar name in the whole group. Please note that the directions given above
are to the southeast. This brings the Island of Lopevi just that much closer to Fiji, which lies directly to the east, and to
the Loyalty Islands even closer than Fiji on the south. Having put that idea in your heads, we'll proceed to knock it out.
Mrs. Stephens said the color of the animal was a reddish-pink. We do not know how the sizable island of Ambrym is situated
with respect to the New Hebrides trench (see below), and the presumable current of Indian Ocean waters that sweep through
there from the west, but it might be possible for it to be so located that there was created on the southeastern or leeward
side a region of quieter water into which a vagrant backwash of a current from the Solomons might flow, if unimpeded, bearing
Golden Cowry eggs. Lopevi, ten miles off the lee shore of Ambrym, is ideally located for such a contingency. See National
Geographic Map #61, issued with the April, 1962 copy of the magazine.
Take for example the splendid cone, Conus prometheus Hwass (which is considered to be the world's largest cone). This shell,
while not rare, is infrequently secured by the Tipos Indicenas tribes, being worn as both an ornament and symbol of wealth by
women of the tribe. The tops of the large cones are neatly sliced off and dangle from strings of beads or leather thongs down
the back of the wearer or hang between their breasts. As a well-to-do native will exchange as much as a full grown cow for a
fine specimen of this shell, it is little wonder that collectors find them difficult to obtain.
Also very popular are the smaller and often rare Cypraea of the region such as zonaria gambiensis, picta, sanguinolenta,
petitiana, and even the West African form of lurida which are formed into strings for head and neck decoration, suplimented
with the more readily secured Cypraea annulus.
To a dedicated collectors, such use of rarities may well seem a desecration of fine shells. However, one had best look at it
philosophically with the thought that the major purpose of shells (once the animal who created them has ceased to have use
for its home) is to bring pleasure to the possessor either asthetically or scientifically and who can say who enjoys them
the most, the native or the specialist.
many shells that come from deeper waters.
We left the Navy Base in Central Zambales at 5 A.M. on December 14, 1963 and traveled south to Subic Bay. There we boarded a
40' boat that I had chartered for the day. Ten Shell Collectors (including wives) and my two children went along on this
trip.
We traveled out of Subic Bay by 8 A.M. and around the southern tip of Zambales along the West Coast of Luzon or South China
Sea to the first big Bay on the coast.
It is called Selangium Bay and is nearly 2 miles long by 2000 feet wide, all reefs and quiet water. We anchored a few hundred
yards in the Bay in about 40' of water at 10 A.M. The reef came up at a 60 degree angle here and you are in 5 to 10 feet of
water. I was the first one in the water and soon picked up a large purple mouth Pleuroploca trapezium that my little girl had
seen from the boat through a view box (or lookie-lookie box). After handing her this shell I swam but a few yards and found a
large 8" pair of Lambis chiragra. I felt this would prove to be a good shelling spot, after such quick luck. (Altogether we
got 8 specimens of L. chiragra)
In two hours of diving for shells in sand, under rocks and breaking coral with a crow bar we all came up with about 100
species of shells over 1" long. On my way back to the boat the last rock I flipped over had a 4" tiger cowry under it much to
my surprise since most of the Cypraea tigris we get in the Philippine are 2" to 3". This was the largest specimen I had seen
outside of Philippines.
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