PREEACE. 
In the course of my preliminary studies of “ The 
Migrations of Early Culture,”’ [ was struck with the 
remarkable cultural uses to which shells were put in 
widely separated parts of the world: but it was not 
until Mr. W. J. Perry wrote his memoir upon “ The Geo- 
graphical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and 
Ancient Mines”* that I came to realise what an impor- 
tant part the search for shells had played in the diffusion 
of the elements of culture and in the upbuilding of civili- 
zation. 
Thus it became clear that a serious attempt must be 
made to collect the conchological evidence. In considera- 
tion of the pitfalls into which archeologists and numis- 
matists had fallen in the past through the failure correctly 
to identify the shells with which they had to deal, it was 
equally clear that the necessary preliminary work should 
be done, not by an ethnographer, but by someone with a 
thorough knowledge of the systematic zoology of the 
Mollusca. 
In Mr. Robert Standen and Mr. Wilfrid Jackson 
the Manchester Museum is fortunate in possessing two 
acknowledged experts in systematic conchology. After 
discussing the question with them, Mr. Jackson undertook 
the task of collecting the ethnographical evidence relating 
to the cultural use of shells and of determining the specific 
identity of the latter. The first fruits of this preliminary 
survey rivalled the products of “ Father O’Flynn’s” intel- 
lectual achievements— 
“Down from mythology into thayology, 
Troth! and conchology, if he’d the call.” 
‘ Manchester University Press, 1915. 
* Manchester Memoirs (Lit. and Phit. Soc. ), November 24th, 1915. 
