PANAMIC-PACIFIC PELECYPODA 11 



By far, the largest collection of shells ever assembled by one man was 

 that of Mr. Hugh Cuming. The Cuming Collection, although somewhat 

 depleted by sale and by trade, was acquired by the British Museum 

 (Natural History) in 1865 when it was reputed to have contained about 

 19,000 specimens. Reeve in the preface to volume 20 of the Conchologica 

 Iconica stated that the collection (Cuming) for its richness and com- 

 pleteness then rivaled all other collections of marine shells in the world 

 together. In recent years, most of its type specimens have been segregated, 

 although others may still remain to be identified and picked out of the 

 general systematic collection amongst which they had been distributed. 

 Mr. Hugh Cuming, an Englishman by birth, went to Chile about 1819, 

 and resided in Valparaiso with some interruptions until 1831. He apparently 

 prospered in his business connections so well that he was able to retire early 

 and from then on to devote his time and fortune to the collecting of shells 

 on a large scale. He built a yacht, named the Discoverer, which was fitted 

 out especially for the collecting and dredging of marine specimens. He 

 made his first trip to Juan Fernandez off the coast of Chile, then to Easter 

 Island, and still further afield. On his second voyage which lasted two 

 years, he explored the coast of Peru, then northward to Ecuador, Panama, 

 Costa Rica, Mexica, and finally to Galapagos. Cuming returned to 

 London in 1831 where his interest in shells took on a still larger field, 

 leading to the organization of an expedition to the Philippines. Much 

 adverse criticism^ has been directed against Cuming mainly from envious 

 zoologists who were denied access to his material or on the grounds that 

 his locality labels were faulty and unreliable. This criticism may be partly 

 true, but it should be remembered that Cuming was not a trained naturalist, 

 and it is hardly fair to judge him by modern standards of field collecting. 

 There has been little reluctance on the part of systematists from describing 

 new species without locality records or many to base new species on scarcely 

 recognizable material or without suitable illustration.- 



The Cuming Collection contained only the choicest specimens avail- 

 able, and its new species were described for the most part by the ablest 

 conchologists of the time. Probably its greatest defect is that specimens 

 were added to it from time to time, as better ones were secured, replacing 

 some of the older ones. Cuming was in residence in Valparaiso at the time 

 of the great earthquake of November, 1822, when his home was destroyed. 

 An account of this quake was read before the Geological Society of London 

 by Captain Fitz Roy of the Beagle who described the great tidal wave 

 which swept in after the earth shocks, causing widespread damage. Ac- 

 cording to a note by Dall, tradition relates that Cuming's interest in col- 



1. Gray, the most severe critic of Cuming, although then connected with 

 the British Museum and contemporary of Sowerby and others, did not name 

 directly any of Cuming's shells. 



2. Darwin held Cuming in high esteem and often appealed to him for 

 identification or for information on habitat station with respect to shells obtained 

 from elevated terraces along the Chilean coast. 



Mr. S. P. Dance of the British Museum (Natural History) has through 

 diligent search of museum records and correspondence unearthed much new 

 information on Cuming, his life and accomplishments. 



