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GENERAL SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



As the results of this investigation, which has extended over four years and a half, \re 

 scattered through a number of articles in the five volumes of this Report, it seems 

 desirable, now that the practical work is concluded, that I should give a summary 

 account of the conclusions arrived at, and should bring together and revise the 

 various recommendations made to the Ceylon Government from time to time. In 

 doing so I shall omit all consideration of purely speciographic and faunistic results, as 

 these matters will be dealt with in a separate article on Geographical Distribution at 

 the end of the Supplementary Reports in this volume. I am here only concerned 

 with those biological results which have a bearing upon the life-processes of the 

 pearl oyster, the nature and characteristics of the " paars " and the prosperity of the 

 Ceylon fisheries. 



The observations upon which these conclusions are based were made : 



1. During the two cruises of the " Lady Havelock " in the Gulf of Manaar, and 

 around Ceylon, during the spring of 1902. 



2. During our subsequent work with the divers on the inspection ship " Ranga- 

 sami-Poravi." 



3. By Mr. Hornell at the Marine Biological Station, Galle, after I had left 

 Ceylon. 



4. During Mr. Hornell's various inspections, and the fisheries that have been 

 held since 1902. 



5. All of which observations have been corrected when necessary, and correlated 

 where possible by the laboratory work in Liverpool upon the material sent home for 

 investigation. In this laboratory work I have had the advantage of frequent help 

 on special points from scientific friends in other Universities, and from some of my 

 assistants in the Zoological Department of the University of Liverpool. 



The factors which determine the problems of the life-history, prosperity and pearl- 

 production of the Ceylon pearl oyster are so inter-related, that it is scarcely possible 

 to make a consistent classification into mutually independent sections ; still, I think 

 it may conduce to clearness and help the reader, by providing landmarks, if I group 



