THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



167 



The distribution of shell trumpets 

 throughout the world has been mapped 

 by Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson in the Man- 

 chester Memoirs^ vol. LX., 1916, No. 8. 

 Australia is almost the only country in 

 ■which shell trumpets do not occur, 



thoug'li material for their nuinufacture 

 is plentiful. If the Australian abori- 

 ginals had blown siiell trumpets, they 

 might not have taught the whites to 

 "cooee." 



Brief History of the Australian Museum. 



Bv W. A. Rainbow 



IT has been generally accepted that 

 the Australian Museum was not 

 founded till 1830. Such, however, is 

 not the case. Earl Bathunst in a despatch 

 to Governor Darling dated March 30th, 

 1827, stated that the advantages of es- 

 tablishing a ^'Publick Museum" had 

 been represented to him, and though he 

 felt some hesitation in sanctioning 

 money for a building until estimates 

 had been submitted he approved the ex- 



penditure of nf)t more tluni £200 an- 

 nually to assist the project. As a first 

 step he consented to the appointment of 

 Mr. W. Holmes as Zoologist "who has 

 been well recommended to me as pecu- 

 liarly fitted for it; and who will, there- 

 fore, be immediately sent out to the 

 Colony." In January, 1828, there ap- 

 peared in the "Australian Journal of 

 Theology, Literature and Science,'' sug- 

 gestions for ''the establislnnent of an 



The residence of the Chief Justice, in which the Colonial Museum was housed 

 from 1836 to 1840. (After Bladen — "Public Library of N.S. Wales, Historial 



Notes," 1906.) 



* For a fuller account of the museum's history, to the year 1868, see R. Etheric 

 in "Records of the Austrahan Museum," vol xii., 1919, p. L-39 



