466 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XVI. 



send me several specimens of the shells, which prove to be undoubted tme 

 pearl-oysters, and through the courtesy of the Jamnagar Diwan has supplied 

 me with the following notes about the fishery under date of 8th February 



1905 :— 



" (1 ) The yearly value of the Jamnagar Pearls fisheries is about Rs. 4,000. 



(2) Pearl oysters are found along a coast line of 80 miles from Mangra near 

 Jodya Bunder to Pindera in the Gulf of Cutch, and also in the islards of Ajad, 

 Chauk, Kalumbar and Nora, which are also situated in the Cutch Gulf. 



(3) The oysters are not procured by diving, but are fished off rocks when the 

 tide is out. During the monsoon, for some reason unexplained, the collection 

 of oysters is limited to 8 days in the month— i.e., 12th to 15th of each half 

 according to the Hindu Calendar. 



(4) The fishermen are by law limited to the Waghers of ten villages, which 

 are Varinar, Sashana, Sika, Balachedi, Jhakhar, Sarmat, Bharana, Sahiya, 

 Chudesar and Bedi. 



(5) The collection is left entirely in the hands of the said Waghers, who at 

 Divali (the Hindu new year) bring all the pearls gathered by them to the 

 Durbar. Then an estimate is made and a fourth of their value is paid to the 

 Waghers and the pearls handed over to the state treasury. This is the old tine- 

 honoured custom to which it is intended to revert. The British administration 

 however broke through it and farmed out the pearl fisheries. 



(6) The present year the oysters have been given a close season." 



So far as I have been able to learn this is the only part of the West Coast of 

 India where the true pearl-oyster is gathered. The pearls in other localities 

 are procured from a very different kind of shell, viz., the so called 

 " Window-oyster " belonging to the genus Placuna. The shells are flat, 

 thin and transparent, being still used in Coa and its neighbourhood as a 

 substitute for glass in windows. They are very abundant from Karachi to 

 the Kanara district and wherever they occur in any abundance they are 

 collected for the sake of the small pearls found in them. Of this fishery in 

 Karachi, Mr. E. H. Aitken writes me that it " is fanned out by Government 

 for a good sum. In 1900, the amount realised was Ks. 3,650 for a period of 

 3 years, but the farmer lost heavily and in 1904 the highest offer for a similar 

 period of 3 years was Rs. 1,851. Pearls may be found in as many as 10 to 20 

 percent, of mature shells. They are small and imperfect and not worth much 

 as jewels, but they are also used in native medicines and are burned to make 

 the black powder with which native ladies beautify the eyelids of their 

 children. No use is made of these oysters, or their shells, after the pearls are 

 removed though I believe they are considered eatable by the poor. 



It may surprise some of you to hear that there formerly existed a pearl 

 fishery in Bombay harbour, and regarding it I cannot do better, I think, than 

 quote the following reference to it from the Bombay Gazetteer, (Thana), 

 published in 1882. " Pearls are found in the Thana creek from Belapur 

 to Thana. Their existence (.does not) appear to have been known to the people 



