124 



CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



conditions, will drift to during given periods of days at different seasons ; and this 

 can only be ascertained by systematic " drift -bottle " experiments such as have 

 recently been made for fisheries purposes in several European seas (see, e.g., 'Fishes 

 and Fisheries of the Irish Sea,' by Herdman and Dawson, London, 1902, p. 7). 

 Moreover, it is only after such work has been carried on systematically for two or 

 three years at least, that it will be possible to determine the course taken by the larval 

 pearl oysters between the time of hatching and the deposit of spat, and again between 

 the attachment to floating Algse and the appearance as young oysters on a paar. These 

 are details which it was impossible for us to settle in the time at our disposal in 1902, 

 but which will naturally, in the future, form an important part of the work of a 

 marine biologist resident in Ceylon. 



Our inspection barque " Sultan Iskander " towing the divers' boats to a new position. 



