REPORT ON THE PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES 

 OE THE GULE OE MANAAR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The celebrated "Pearl oysters" of Ceylon are found mainly on certain parts of the 

 wide shallow plateau which occupies the upper end of the Gulf of Manaar, off the 

 North-west Coast of the Island and South of Adam's Bridge. Pearl banks also exist 

 on the opposite Coast of India, off Tuticorin. The animal (Margaritifera vulgaris, 

 Schum., = Avicula fucata, Gould) is not a true oyster, but belongs to the family 

 Aviculid.e, and is therefore more nearly related to the Mussels {Mytilus) than to the 

 Oysters (Ostrea) of our British seas. One very notable character of great practical 

 importance, in which it differs from Ostrea, is that the Pearl oyster, like our common 

 Mussels, has a " byssus " or bundle of tough threads by which it can attach itself to 

 rocks or other foreign objects. 



The Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon, India, and the Persian Gulf, yielding the highly 

 prized " Oriental " pearl, are of very great antiquity. They are probably the most 

 ancient fisheries still in existence, and seem to be carried on at the present day under 

 very much the same conditions as 2000 or perhaps even 3000 years ago. These 

 fisheries are referred to by various classical writers, and Pliny, after saying how 

 highly valued the pearls are at Rome, refers to Taprobane [Ceylon] as " the most 

 productive of pearls of all parts of the world."* Pliny also describes the coral that 

 abounds in the Gulf of Manaar, and mentions pearls and precious stones as the 

 products of Ceylon. But the Singhalese records take us to still earlier times. 

 According to the " Mahawanso," pearls figure in the list of native products sent as a 

 present from King Vijaya of Ceylon to his Indian father-in-law in about 540- 

 550 B.C. ; and again when, in B.C. 306, King Devanampiyatissa sent an embassy to 

 India the presents are said to include eight kinds of Ceylon pearls. The King's Hall 

 in the Brazen Palace at Anuradhapura (b.c. 161) is said to have been decorated with 

 native pearls. The mortar in the ruins of Polonaruwa shows the remains of the 

 pearl-oyster shells which were used in its manufacture no doubt the refuse of an 



* 'Pun. Nat. Hist.,' Bk. IX., chap. 54, Lemaire's Edition. I am indebted to my colleague, Professor 

 H. A. Strong, for kindly giving me these and other references. Athen^US and ^Elian make similar 

 statements. The anonymous " Periplus " of the Erythraean Sea describes a great pearl fishery at Colchi, 

 near Comar, in Taprobane or Ceylon, which probably refers to some part of the Gulf of Manual-. 



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