NARRATIVE. 93 



for our work during the last year. Mr. Hornell as the later parts of bhis report 

 will show has heen able to investigate there the greater part of the matters 1 left in 

 his hands ; but there is still much useful work connected both with the Pearl Fisheries 

 and with other marine industries that he could continue to carry on in this scientific 

 workshop. Moreover, with a little extension of accommodation and permanent 

 equipment it would he an eminently desirable and well-fitted establishment for general 

 marine biological investigation, and would add to the scientific resources and 

 attractions of the Colony. As examples of this it may lie mentioned that during the 

 past year (I) Mr. Hornell has been able to supply specimens of marine alga? to 

 workers at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, and types of marine animals to the 

 Medical College at Colombo; (2) a Swedish Botanist, Dr. Nils Svedelius. from 

 Upsala University, has already made use of the laboratory as a place of research, 

 and has expressed the opinion that it is very favourably situated for a tropical 

 Marine Biological .Station ; and (3) it would naturally afford accommodation and 

 material to the other scientific men of Ceylon. It is conveniently and centrally 

 situated in the Fort, easy of access from the railway station and near the boat 

 jetty, close to pure sea-water, opposite the Vellikoko Beef, adjoining good collecting 

 grounds and with a living coral reef fringing the base of its walls it seems 

 in short an ideal spot for the purpose. Dr. ARTHUE WlLLEY, F. U.S., Director 

 of the Museum at Colombo, writes to me in regard to this Galle Marine Station 

 (May Sth, 1903) "I shall certainly hope to see the Laboratory which you 

 established at Galle made a permanent institution after the publication of your 

 report. ... I have been twice to Galle and have seen Hornell there hard at 

 work, and he has shown me the admirable though simple appliances which render 

 so much service." 



Mr. Horxell's work at the Galle Laboratory since April, 190:!, has been chiefly on 

 the following points all of importance in connection with our understanding of the 

 mode of life, the prosperity and the reproduction of the pearl oyster: 



1. ByssuS formation, attachment, detachment, casting off the byssus and re-attach- 



ment. 



2. Locomotion, both in old and young, crawling by means of the foot, and move- 



ment of the shells. 



3. Effect of being partially or completely buried in sand. A healthy oyster can 



free itself from a thin layer of sand, and usually does so ; but it cannot get out 

 of 3 inches of sand and soon dies when buried. 



4. The sexual condition of the oyster, the production of eggs and spermatozoa, 



their emission, the fertilisation and the early stages of development. 



5. The "spat" its characters and stages, and comparison with small species of 



Avicula. 



