Iviii PROCEEDINGS OE THE 



chagua, dredging in all tlie bays and inlets, searching among the 

 rocks and stones at low water, and inland in the plains, river- 

 banks, and forests, Mr. Cuming returned to England with an 

 enormous accumulation of natural-history objects of all kinds. 

 The most important part, however, was the conchological. In 

 1835 Mr. Cuming undertook a new expedition to the Philippine 

 Islands, a region rich in natural productions, and but little ex- 

 plored, and where his familiar knowledge of the Spanish language 

 and manners would be of great advantage. Here, although 

 dredgings on the shores were not neglected, his attention was 

 more particularly directed to the woods and forests, where he 

 reaped a most abundant harvest of plants, and collected such an 

 immense and magnificent series of land-shells as had never be- 

 fore rewarded the exertions of a collector. In every place Mr. 

 Cuming was the guest of the priest, always the chief personage 

 in the interior of these islands, and by whom he was always as- 

 sisted in every imaginable way. He was also thus enabled to ob- 

 tain what was of still greater importance, the services of the 

 children educated in the public schools, and numbering in some 

 places as many as 400 or 500. By the aid of these sharp-eyed 

 auxiliaries, shells which gladdened his eyes by their novelty and 

 exceeding beauty were daily brought to him in prodigious num- 

 bers. 



After four years spent among these islands, and in short visits 

 to Malacca, Singapore, and St. Helena, Mr. Cuming returned to 

 England with the richest booty ever collected by a single man. 

 His dried plants, which 'numbered 130,000 specimens, were imme- 

 diately distributed, as well as his living Orchids, which were nu- 

 merous and of great beauty. Large numbers of Birds and Rep- 

 tiles. Quadrupeds and Insects, were added to museums at home 

 and abroad. But the shells formed by far the most important 

 part of his collections. Before leaving England he had brought 

 together from his own American collections and elsewhere the 

 largest and most valuable collection then in existence. By his 

 vast Philippine collections this was increased to an enormous ex- 

 tent ; and during the twenty -five years that have since elapsed he 

 was untiringly engaged in its arrangement, completion, and de- 

 scription by various conchologists. It is stated to have contained 

 not less than 30,000 species and varieties, and in most cases several 

 specimens of each. 



Erom time to time he disposed of his duplicate specimens to 

 various public and private collections, and always took pleasure in 



