Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
more than one scientific conchologist, and, rather than 
leave my readers to flounder in a sea of bewildering details, 
I have definitely decided, at all events at present, to let 
the Chitonidz severely alone, for I am convinced from my 
own experience that personal instruction is the only method 
of introducing one to the study of these interesting and 
beautiful Gasteropods. One more confession, and I have 
finished. Each species mentioned in the book has been 
placed in the proper order of classification as followed by 
the late Mr. H. Suter, but it will be observed that there 
is little or no reference to families, genera or species, for 
the beginner does not want to be burdened with a mass 
of unnecessary academic work. Should these amateur 
efforts have given him a desire for wider scope in con- 
chology, then he can get the requisite text books and take 
up the study seriously; but my object has been to present 
to the average person a fascinating and wholesome hobby 
in such form that it may be assimilated “cito et jucunde.” 
I might here mention that of the two hundred and fifty- 
three species and sub-species described, no less than two 
hundred and sixteen have been found at Mount Maunga- 
nui, a locality easily holding the record in the Dominion 
as the best hunting-ground for shell collectors, for within 
a radius of a couple of miles one finds every possible kind 
of cover for marine life—sandy beach, shallows and deeps; 
rocks, boulders, reefs; harbour and open sea; surf and 
still water, pool and cove,—and what more can one desire? 
Besides the enduring delights of seeking for shells in 
all seasons of the year and all weathers, fair or foul, with 
the constant chances and hopes of finding a rare or par- 
ticularly choice specimen, one gets, as it were, a peep into 
the infinite mystery of Nature, a glimpse of a world abound- 
ing in things and beings of which the most capacious in- 
tellect can grasp but a fraction. If we are blessed with 
the possession of an artistic temperament, or a poetic sense 
—and the germ of this priceless gift is latent in us all, 
however trammelled we may be by the conventions of 
civilisation—the pursuit of knowledge at first hand, and 
in the wide spaces of heaven and earth, broadens the mind 
and ennobles the soul in such manner that we soar above 
the little ills and worries of life without effort, and the 
world, we sometimes think so full of woe, we find filled 
to the brim with harmony and grace. No longer need we 
be mislead by the cynic’s exhortation, “Presume not God to 
scan, the proper study of mankind is man,” for all Nature 
is before us, and we are part and parcel of the great 
Cosmos, atoms if you will, but fitting well and truly into 
the eternal fitness of things. 
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