DISPERSAL BY MAN. 20$ 



done it. I discovered that some months previously a 

 French man-of-war had been in the harbour and having 

 received much kindness and attention from the French 

 Consul, Mons. D,, had requited it somewhat by pre- 

 senting him with a little barrel of " escargots " of which 

 he was very fond. Mons. D. was a wise man ! He 

 reasoned within himself, ^' I can both have my cake, and 

 eat my cake ; I'll eat the big ones and plant the little 

 ones." So " whene'er he took his walks abroad " he 

 took a few little ones with him, and chucked them over 

 the garden walls ; and they increased and multiplied 

 and filled the land, and in the words of the old writer 

 (slightly altered) 



Mons. D. bred the bore 



But E. L. L. got the ' gloire ' ! 



"In 1879, I was on a collecting trip to the Loyalty 

 Islands. I was living in the house of a trader named 

 Wright at Chepenche, in the island of Lifou. The 

 natives, of course, discussed me and my doings, how I 

 shot and skinned birds and picked up shells. One day 

 a native came, and addressing Wright, said he had 

 brought a shell that no native of the island had ever 

 seen before ; he had found it in his Yam patch, and hoped 

 I would give him a good reward for it. After this 

 oration he carefully untied the corner of his waist-cloth, 

 and produced a bundle of Yam leaves, carefully tied up ; 

 in the centre of these was a half-grown H. aspersa ! 

 Wright examined it with great care. He had never 

 seen anything like it before (he was born in Australia) 



