QUEST FOR SHELLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1940, Page 6

QUEST FOR SHELLS

AMERICAN’S TRAVELS. GERMAN COLLECTIONS BOUGHT A conchologist of Florida, Mr Edward Dranga, has realised one of his life’s dreams. The greatest prize of a journey of 30,000 miles he has made in search of rare types of seashells was an Australian specimen, the “Great Bugler.” To obtain it, he made a special flight from Darwin to Broome. The “Great. Bugler” is the largest convoluted shell in the world. “Australia was the only place where I had a chance of finding the ‘Great Bugler’," said Mr Dranga, after he arrived in Sydney by airliner from the north. “It was worth my special flight from Darwin to Broome. 1 am mighty proud of it. too.” In search of shells, Mr Dranga has made almost a complete circuit of the Pacific islands. In recent months, he has visited Fiji, Samoa. Bali and Java. "I had wonderful hick in Bali,” said Mr Dranga. “Two German curio dealers there had a marvellous collection of between 20,000 and 30,000 shells of all types and colours. The Germans were interned by the Dutch authorities, and the Netherlands Government confiscated (heir property, which included the shells. On the day I reached Bali, their property was put up at public auction, and I bough! the whole collection of seashells." At. Miami, Mr Dranga has a vast collection of shells, to which he is constantly adding new types.