SEA SHORE SHELLS

NZ Truth, Issue 1201, 6 December 1928, Page 17

SEA SHORE SHELLS

Hdw-many' iW p m^n, once survived .the .experience :■ of ibeins 1 dhase<i ouUbf'a'ipoblVby a large and indignant octopus, would go back arid ask for more? Few- arid far between such hardy ladies may toe, tout Miss Marjpri.e Mestayer, who has charge of the Conchological Department at the Dominion Museum, holds that such little incidents are part of the day's work and that, anyhow, the octopus probably felt worse. about it than she For many "years, Miss Mestayer. has hunted shells, waded' for shells, cleaned shells, classified shells, and m general fitted herself for the post which she now occupies — that of the only woman conchological expert m the Dominion. She was given her present post at the Museum several years mainly because Wellington could at that time produce no man who knew much more about shells than that they were curious things found on beaches. But even before' her appointment to the Museum staff; Miss Mestayer had been sent on several shell-hunting expeditions throughout the North Island by the Government, and had brought' back important ' collections. . Sir James Hector, who was the first director of the Dominion Museum, started Miss Mestayer off along the shelly- track. Around Island and Lyall Bays began rambling expeditions, when the queer treasure trove of the seafloor were brought, much against their own inclination, to light. . , • Horny old limpets clung fast to their rocks, octopi protested as best' they might against intrusions on their privacy, but Miss Mestayer's collection kept on growing, and. her knowledge of shell- science grew with it. Miss 'Mestayer, m her leisure moments, is as nearly aquatic as a human being can be. The rock-combing expeditions need an informal costume of bathing suit and .stout shoes — the latter being for the discouragement of any small octopus who may look, upon feminine ankles as a lunch prospect. "Look through the microscope at this tube," says Miss Mestayer. A glance reveals hundreds of tiny shells — the daddy of them all less than a quarter of an inch across— yet gleaming with different colors arid twisted into a multitude of. delicate shapes. '. . To contrast with these, a huge mussel, twelve inches • lon°- is produced from a show case; or some, fan shells — the same that ancient pilgrims wore m their hats to prove "that they had visited >the Holy Land— are shown m sizes which would do excellently for soup plates. Four glass showcases are given over to a picturesque copy of sea-bottom— some of it shallow, as m the little wink rock pools where "our sand-babies scarcely have room to dabble their toes, the rest green and mysterious, as the world, must 'look at fifty. fathoms deep.