JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 59 
AN EPITOME OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE 
HUGH CUMING, F.LS., C.M.ZS., &c. 
By J. © MELVILL, MA., FI.S. 
(Read before the Conchological Society, May rst, 1895). 
THE science of conchology, more especially as regards its geo- 
graphical and systematic aspects, owes, perhaps, more primarily 
to the subject of the forthcoming sketch than to any who either 
preceded or followed him. 
The history of the career of the late Mr. Hugh Cuming 
may be told very briefly. He was born on February r4th, 
1791, at West Alvington, near Kingsbridge, South Devon, and 
we gather his parents were possessed but of small means, for 
very early in life, say at the age of thirteen or fourteen, he was 
apprenticed to a sail-maker in the neighbourhood, and this gave 
him the opportunity of making acquaintance with many sailors, 
who fired his youthful imagination, in which a strong leaning 
towards the pursuit of natural history had already been dis- 
cerned, with stirring tales of the delights and excitements of 
foreign travel. Accordingly he did not rest until he himself 
had with his own eyes beheld the marvels so vividly pourtrayed 
by his friends ; and, in the year 1819, the opportunity somewhat 
suddenly arrived. An opening in business was found for him 
in Valparaiso, and he accordingly set sail for Chili in the middle 
of that year. Here he at once began, without delay, to lay the 
foundations of those collections for which he became so famous 
in after years, and by a piece of good fortune he almost at the 
outset fell in with Lieut. Frembley, one of the officers of the 
survey under the command of Captains King and Fitzroy. 
Frembley is well known as a conchologist, having been the first 
to study those large Chitonidz which abound on the Chilian 
coasts, and many were described by him for the first time. 
The other officers also lent their aid to Cuming, and Mr. 
Nugent, the English consul at Valparaiso, proved a very kind 
