Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutets, etc. 189 
shells, ours being of the variety @/ava, as described by 
RKochebrune,™ who says they come from the Cape Verde 
Islands” (see Fig. C, p. 156). 
Notwithstanding Rochebrune’s assertion, few students 
of Cyprea admit the possibility of the occurrence of living 
C. moneta at the Cape Verde Islands, or indeed on any 
portion of the West African coast. The cited occurrences 
there of this and the allied form, C. axnulus, may be due 
to accident. As already stated, enormous numbers of 
these shells have been carried to this coast during the 
last few centuries, and it is a well-known fact that ships 
conveying this commodity have occasionally come to 
crief, the cargo of shells being lost. Such an occurrence 
is recorded to have taken place in the year 1873, when 
the “ Glendowra,” a four-masted barque, homeward bound 
from Manilla, was wrecked off the coast of Cumberland. 
The “ Glendowra” had on board some 600 bags of cowries 
(C. moneta and C. annulus) and missed the port of Liver- 
pool through an error in her course, and, in the fog which 
prevailed, ran ashore near Seascale. For years these 
shells have been picked up, in good condition, on the 
sandy shore between Seascale and the river Calder, and 
collectors, unaware of their history, have regarded them 
as indigenous to the British Isles.’ 
Unfortunately, the precise distribution of the numerous 
varieties of C. moneta is not very well known. Hence it 
is not possible to be sure of the exact provenance of the 
Roden mound cowries, nor of those on the Cree dress. 
It may be of interest, however, to note that Dr. J. Cosmo 
Melvill, in his “Survey of the Genus Cyprea” (of. c7z., 
p. 240), gives India as a locality for the var, a/ava. 
190 Bull. Soc. Malac. de France, i., 1884, p. 83, pl. i., fig. 4 (copied 
in /zg. C of the present Chapter, p. 156). 
191 See The Naturalist, London, Nov., 1890, p. 324. 
