[ vi ] 



tiibulatus a familiar object on the pearl banks. This worm, when first found, was 

 supposed to be an Oligochaete, but now proves, as Mr. Watson has shown, to be a 

 Polychaete allied to the Leucodore that burrows in the pearl oyster shells. 



During the present year, since the issue of Part III., important changes have taken 

 place in Ceylon, both on the pearl banks and in the arrangements proposed for future 

 fisheries. The recommendations made, on biological grounds, in the article on ' The 

 Present Condition of the Pearl Banks' (Part III., p. 44) were not fully adopted by 

 the Government of Ceylon. 



The South Cheval Paar, which it was hoped would be left for another year, to 

 supply a fishery in 1906, was stripped along with the Modragam Paars and some 

 other sections of the Cheval the result being that the great fishery in the Spring of 

 1905 now holds the record both for the total number of oysters fished and also for 

 the amount of revenue brought in to the Government. The prices obtained were very 

 high, and it is, of course, under such circumstances, a great temptation to a Government 

 to fish and sell as many oysters as it is possible to obtain in the limited time permitted 

 by the weather. It must always be a difficult matter to decide whether oysters 

 present in abundance but admittedly immature should be secured at once or left to 

 have an additional year of growth and probable pearl-formation. We can only hope 

 that on the present occasion the decision has been a wise one, and that the clearing of 

 the South Cheval Paar has not imperilled the success of next year's fishery. 



Another factor which may have an important bearing upon the future history of 

 the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries is the proposal that the pearl banks should be leased for a 

 period of years to a Syndicate, which will be bound by the terms of the lease to 

 expend a considerable sum annually in the cultivation and exploitation of the fishing 

 grounds. It seems probable at the time of issuing this volume that the next Ceylon 

 Pearl Fishery will be held under the auspices of the Syndicate. 



W. A. HEKDMAN. 

 The University, Liverpool. 

 November, 1905. 



