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Heishe
One fine day, we landed on Crab Island, down the gulf. Up till then, I thought I could hardly find better shelling areas than
in Society Islands or around New Caledonia, but this one large sand island seems to have more different species of shells
than I ever experienced before. We filled eight plastic buckets and as many bags with shells, just picked from the beaches;
most of these shells were in very good condition. This was the first time in my shelling life I went after dead shells with
so much enthusiasm. They were piled up on the beaches by the thousands and the only trouble was to make up ones mind what to
pick. Among many others, this island yielded: Voluta turneri and sophia, Epitonium scalare, Ancilla velesiana, Melo,
Megalotractus, Turritella, Terebra, Strombus vittatus and pure white bubble shells, etc., etc. This small paradise also teems
with turtles. Towards late afternoon, scores and scores of these odd creatures crawl out of the warm waters and lay their
eggs in carefully dug "nests" in the sand. It was easy to take rides on these sluggish crawler's backs and we ate turtle's
eggs until I was sick of them.
I must admit, at this point, that I did not do as much skin diving as I wished, as huge sharks were always lurking nearby and
that rather cooled me off. And also large salt water crocodiles, twelve feet and up, were a new experience to me. We had the
bad habit of sleeping at night on the sandy beaches, and it was not uncommon, in early morning, to find huge croc tracks on
the sand not far from our "beds." Not very comforting, indeed.
The native divers were not in the least interested in shells, except pearl shells, which is the only industry. But after I
had been out with them a few times, I persuaded a few smarter boys that they could make a few extra pounds on the sideline.
Money is a powerful lever in any country and, before long, I was being offered shells from all directions. When pearl shell
is brought up from the bottom, they are cleaned of anything that is clinging to them and this is thrown back into the sea.
Word soon went around that "a crazy Frenchman" was buying all the rubbish that stuck to the "Gold lips," as the maleagrina
are locally called. So shells began to pour in and pretty soon, instead of having to buy the whole cartons, regardless of the
fact that I often only wanted two or three shells out of the heap, I could now afford to take my pick. The bulk of the loot
was composed mainly of Murex cervicornis, M. axicornis, M. cornucervi, M. macgillivrayi, M. adustus, an occasional small
winged Murex not yet identified, and, one fine day, four rare Murex bednalli, as well as a perfect Murex pinnatus. Cypraea do
not seem to be plentiful in that fascinating territory. miliaris, limacina and stolida turned up most often, although an
occasional hammondae also finished up in my loot. The three former are all from deep water and are all reddish when they are
fresh. Melo were the most common, beauties too, but Voluta sophiae, turneri and keatsiana, of the gatliffi variety, sometimes
turned up also. I was out of luck with Voluta bednalli and only got one.
As each fragment is pried off it is checked for shells and then tossed into the area previously cleared. The reason for this
method is that some shells drop off the coral the moment it is disturbed. Others hang on momentarily then drop off. After the
coral-head has been demolished, I again check each piece previously tossed aside, searching for any shells that might still
be clinging to the coral or that have dropped off as the coral hit the cleared area. By this time the area originally
occupied by the coral-head should have cleared up and I start fanning the silt under the coral-head.
In 40 to 50 feet of water a coral-head such as this might produce several species of Cypraea, the species depending on the
marine growth in the coral. Most Cypraea tessellata that I have collected have been found in such a coral-head and almost
always there was a brownish, leaf-like algal growth into which the tessellata blended perfectly. If the coral-head contained
a reddish, sponge-like growth, Cypraea fimbriata, teres, gaskoini, and rashleighana might be found. If a brilliant, yellowish
growth is present no shells are likely to be found. Most Cypraea will be found in the upper branches of the coral head.
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