324 



THE MONEY COWRY 

 ON THE COAST OF CUMBERLAND. 



Rev. CHARLES CRAWSHAW, M.C.S., 

 Shipley, Yorkshire. 



Upon the sandy beach between Seascale and the river Calder, the 

 Money Cowry (^Cyprcea niofieta) may be found in abundance. This 

 shell (with a few C. aiuwlata) occurs upon the high-water 

 line left by the tide ; and although visitors clear the ground every 

 day, the succeeding tide renews the supply. In the course of 

 a few days the writer collected about 600 shells, and nearly all of 

 them in good condition for beached specimens. 



The Money Cowry is known to the general public as a foreign 

 shell, if not as the product of the Indian Ocean, and the appearance 

 of it upon the Cumberland shore is locally explained by supposing 

 that it has been introduced accidentally in a living state, and a 

 thriving colony established in the sea at the mouth of the Calder. 

 These shells have been found now for so many years that the 

 popular theory tracing them to the adjacent colony gathers strength, 

 while the true explanation becomes more and more obscure. Some 

 of the residents, however, remember the wreck of the ' Glendowra,' 

 in 1873. This vessel was a four-masted barque, homeward-bound 

 from Manilla. Her cargo consisted of jute, sugar, and cowries ; 

 of the latter there were on board 600 bags, containing 2 cwt. each. 

 The ' Glendowra ' missed the port of Liverpool through an error in 

 her course, and, in the fog which prevailed, ran ashore near Seascale. 

 All the crew were saved, and the wreck, which could not be recovered, 

 was subsequently removed by explosives. 



I find, by counting the cowries in a given weight, that there 

 would be in the 600 bags lost in the sea about 70,000,000 shells, 

 a number sufficiently accounting for the continual supply cast up 

 upon the shore, and also illustrating the amazing productiveness of 

 this mollusc in its native place. 



The best cowries come from the Maldive Islands, and are taken 

 to Ceylon to be shipped for England, and thence are exported to 

 Africa, chiefly by the river Niger. An inferior kind reaches this 

 country via Zanzibar, and is sent to Lagos. One Liverpool firm 

 transmits from 20 tons to 30 tons per annum. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



We have to ileplore the loss of John Hancock, whose death— at the age of 82— 

 took place at Newcastle-on-Tyne, on the 8th of October. 



Naturalist 



