NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 2 April 197 Page 3 
The plum-colored obscurus is one of those species which feeds on 
fish and whose toxin is among the most virulent. The stings were 
described as "like bee stings" which is a rather uncertain descrip- 
tion considering that bee stings are extremely dangerous to some 
individuals. We have no report on how seriously the two gentlemen 
were affected by the cone stings. 
DR 
A Postscript to SNAIL DYES IN OAXACA 
(See NOTES 229:4,5) 
Edward F. Cowles 
With reference to the snail dyes of Oaxaca, some of you may remember 
my talk given in March, 1971 describing my recent visit to that area 
and discussing the snail of the dye, Purpura patula pansa Gould 
1853. It was I who gave Karl the article by Peter Gerhard which he 
translated for the NOTES. 
In December of 1970 I found the custom of "milking" snails for their 
dye still very much alive, and in view of the relative inaccessibil- 
ity of the mountain villages to tourist traffic, I have no doubt of 
its survival to this day. In the company of a friend from Acapulco 
who had been born in Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca, I traveled from that 
town on the coastal road to Pinotepa de Don Luis by "bus" (a stake 
truck). The road was -- and I hope still is -- not traversible by 
ordinary automobiles with their low road clearance. We visited one 
of the handful of Spanish-descended (and Spanish-speaking) families 
there, who operated a wholesale business in snail-dyed cloth (among 
other goods). We saw the rather smelly raw thread that had been 
brought up from the coast, and then being woven on a primitive loom, 
tied at one end to a post or tree and, at the other, strapped about 
the waist of the weaver. Besides the purple snail color, other hues 
are derived from berries (?) and a red insect that lives on certain 
cactus plants. 
Snail dyeing is (or was) done also in Central America and perhaps 
farther south. I read somewhere that the term "nicoyana" -- refer- 
ring to the Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica -- was applied to snail- 
dyed cloth sold in the highlands of Peru. 
coer: SEASHORE LIFE of Florida and the Caribbean 
by Gilbert L. Voss, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sci- 
ence, University of Miami, 1977. E. A. Seeman Publishing, Inc., 
Miami, Florida 33156. 168 pp-, 19 color plates, 280 drawings, Carib- 
bean maps, index, glossary, reference by phylum. Clothbound $9.95. 
Up to now information on sea life, other than mollusks and fishes, 
has been spotty, scientific, or only on a few groups such as coral 
or barnacles. Now we have this book, in language accurate but not 
too technical, bringing together the commonest sea life we see in 
the Caribbean from Bermuda to the West Indies and northern Brazil. 
The 280 drawings point out identification details and, on the oppo- 
site page, the paragraph description. Even some molluscan soft- 
bodied species, such as octopus and sea hares, are covered. Every 
one who beachcombs, shuffles in shallow water, peers through a glass- 
bottomed bucket, snorkels or uses SCUBA, should own this book. It 
