PREFACE. 



In the course of my preliminary studies of " The 

 Migrations of Early Culture,"^ I was struck with the 

 remarkable cultural uses to which shells were put in 

 widely separated parts of the world : but it was not 

 until Mr. W. J. Perry wrote his memoir upon " The Geo- 

 graphical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and 

 Ancient Mines"" that I came to realise what an impor- 

 tant part the search for shells had played in the diffusion 

 of the elements of culture and in the upbuilding of civili- 

 zation. 



Thus it became clear that a serious attempt must be 

 made to collect the conchological evidence. In considera- 

 tion of the pitfalls into which archjEoIogists and numis- 

 matists had fallen in the past through the failure correctly 

 to identify the shells with which they had to deal, it was 

 equally clear that the necessary preliminary work should 

 be done, not by an ethnographer, but by someone with a 

 thorough knowledge of the systematic zoology of the 

 Mollusca. 



In Mr. Robert Standen and Mr. Wilfrid Jackson 

 the Manchester Museum is fortunate in possessing two 

 acknowledged experts in systematic conchology. After 

 discussing the question with them, Mr. Jackson undertook 

 the task of collecting the ethnographical evidence relating 

 to the cultural use of shells and of determining the specific 

 identity of the latter. The first fruits of this preliminary 

 survey rivalled the products of "Father O'Flynn's" intel- 

 lectual achievements — 



" Down from mythology into thayology, 

 Troth ! and conchology, if he'd the call." 



' Manchester University Press, 1915. 



^ Manchester Memoirs (Lit. and Phil. Soc.J, November 24tli, 1915. 



