578 THE NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 



established, and it was in 1831 that its evening scientific meetings 

 began to be enlivened by the brilliant displays of new shells from 

 his cabinet, which were described by the late Mr. Broderip and the 

 late Mr. Gr. B. Sowerby ; while the anatomy of some of the more 

 interesting moUusks formed the subject of papers by Prof. Owen. 

 For four-and-thirty years his unrivalled collection has continued to 

 supply fresh novelties for these meetings, and the supply is still far 

 from being exhausted. In 1835 he determined to undertake a new 

 expedition, and fixed upon the Philippine Islands, rich in natural 

 productions, little explored, and where his knowledge of Spanish 

 would be of great advantage, as the scene of his labours. Letters 

 of recommendation from the authorities at Madrid to the Governor- 

 General at Manilla, to the governors of the various provinces into 

 which the islands are divided, and to the Archbishop of Manilla, 

 procured him a hospitable welcome among all ranks, but especially 

 among the clergy, wherever he presented himself. Although his 

 dredgings and wanderings by the sea- shore were by no means incon- 

 siderable, his attention was now more particularly directed to the 

 woods and forests of these luxuriant islands, and in them he reaped 

 a most abundant harvest of plants, and filled his store-chests with 

 innumerable specimens of such a magnificent series of land-shells as 

 had never before rewarded the exertions of a collector. In every 

 locality Mr. Cuming became the guest of the Padre or priest, always 

 the chief personage of the district, in the interior of these islands. 

 Their houses and equipages were placed at his disposal, and, what 

 was of still greater importance, the services of the school-children, 

 educated at the expense of the Spanish Government, and numbering 

 in some places as many as four or five hundred, were secured to 

 scour the woods for snails and plants. Small bribes of money were 

 most efi'ectual in directing the lynx-eyes of these youthful collectors 

 to the detection of such as were especially pointed out to their notice, 

 and shells which gladdened the collector's eyes by their exceeding no- 

 velty and beauty were brought to him day by day in quantities which 

 seemed prodigious. After four years spent among the islands of the 

 Philippine group, and short visits to Malacca, Singapore, and St. 

 Helena, Mr. Cuming returned to England with the richest booty 

 that had ever been collected by a single man. His dried plants, 

 which numbered 130,000 specimens, were immediately distributed, as 

 well as his living orchids, which were numerous and of great beauty. 

 Large numbers of birds and reptiles, quadrupeds and insects, were 



