196 MELVILL: BRITISH PIONEERS IN CONCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



devoted to botany and the study of conchology, many of our 

 most beautiful shells, e.g., Voluta aulica and V. pacifica, having 

 been described by him from specimens chiefly in the collection 

 of the Duchess of Portland. He died suddenly in 1782 at 

 the early age of forty-six. 



In 1768 the famous expedition of Captain Cook, in the 

 " Endeavour," to the Pacific, the object being to witness the 

 transit of Venus, was inaugurated. From Tahiti the party 

 visited New Zealand, and then Australia, which continental 

 island was taken possession of in the name of Great Britain. 

 He then continued the voyage to Java and the Cape of Good 

 Hope, having passed through Torres Straits, and discovered 

 that New Guinea and Australia were different islands. This 

 voyage contributed much to natural science, and not a little to 

 conchology. Capt. Cook's name is immortalized in Trochus 

 cookii (Gmelin)=C<?(?X'/f? sulcata (Martyn), a native of New 

 Zealand. 



Captain Cook undertook a second voyage in two ships, 

 the " Resolution " and " Adventure," in 1772, which returned 

 in 1775, after a three years' navigation of the Pacific and 

 Southern oceans. 



In 1776, he sailed again in the "Resolution" and "Dis- 

 covery," to seek a north-west passage by Behring's Strait. On 

 his return voyage he was massacred by natives at Hawaii in 

 1779, and so died one of England's greatest navigators, at the 

 age of fifty-one. 



We must not omit mention here of Mr. E. M. DaCosta, 

 whose work, entitled, " The Elements of Conchology," was 

 published in 1776. It was followed in 1778 by his "British 

 Conchology," subsequently incorporated with and improved by 

 Donovan in his " Natural History of British Shells." DaCosta 

 was aided by Mr. George Humphrey, familiarly known as " Old 

 Humphrey," the importer of many still extremely rare shells, 

 e.g., CyprcEa valentiana (Perry), named after one of his patrons 

 Viscount Valentia. 



J.C., vi., Apr., 1890. 



