Collecting localities in the Cape Province, Union of South Africa

The part of the Cape Province where the town of Uitenhage is situated is known as the Eastern Province. Uitenhage is 20 miles inland from Port Elizabeth.

Port Elizabeth itself was a noted collecting ground, much frequented by the older generation of collectors of 80 or more years ago. Modern 'improvements', which cover the building of a harbour, with oil storage site, etc., have now completely obliterated the reefs where the old collectors worked.

Today a locality which repays a visit is Cape Receife, some eight miles south of Port Elizabeth. From Cape Receife for about 10 miles west¬ward to a point known as Sea View, the shore is rocky with reefs. Great care is necessary while collecting at low tide, for most of the reef is covered with sea growths making it slippery. A good road close to the shore gives ready access to any chosen point, and the collector will find several species of Patella, Siphonaria, Oxystele, Herita, etc. obtainable alive. Two species of Ormers, Haliotis midae and H. sanguinea are also found.

On the other side of Port Elizabeth - a few miles north - the Zwartkops River enters Algoa Bay, and the estuary is worth a visit. This locality was visited in December last by a young but very keen collector.

He made a most interesting collection, including the finding of live specimens of Nerita plexa and Nerita plicata. These two species were report ed from the old collecting ground at Port Elizabeth over sixty years ago, but have never been seen again until their re-discovery in the Zwartkops Estuary,

Forty miles west of Port Elizabeth is the small holiday resort of Jeffreys Bay - a small dent in the far larger expanse of St, Francis Bay. Jeffreys Bay is one of the finest localities for the collector to visit for shells, and is well known to collectors all over South Africa, The writer has some 250 or more species from this locality, and with the advent of the new sport of skin diving, in the near future it may be possible to extend our present knowledge of the Jeffreys Bay molluscan fauna.

by D. H. Kennelly, Uitenhage, S. Africa