468 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



the N. and N.-W. Coasts of Australia, besides the Persian Gulf, Straits Settle- 

 ments and the Islands of the Pacific. The nacre is highly irridescent, often 

 somewhat steely in lustre and generally with a marginal band of dark metallic 

 green, bronze or brassy yellow, while some varieties are quite smoky. They are 

 known in the trade as ' Banda' shells with a prefix indicating the port from which 

 the supply is shipped to the London market, e. g., the Australian shell or 

 Zanzibar shell, with other distinguishing descriptive titles as the Black-lipped 

 Banda, &c. The ' Lingah' or ' Bombay shell' of the trade is the smaller pearl- 

 producing species from the Persian Gulf and is of comparatively little value for 

 its mother-o'-pearl owing to the large supply and limited demand. 



The yearly import of mother-o'-pearl shells into England exceeded in 

 value a quarter of a million sterling some years ago, and may possibly now be 

 larger still, though a large proportion of this is re-exported to Continental 

 Europe. As regards local trade in Bombay I can supply the following figures 

 for the official year 1903-4, when the imports amounted to some 90 odd tons of 

 a value of nearly half a lakh of rupees, or about Bs. 33 per cwt. They were 

 imported chiefly from Arabian and Persian Gulf ports, and to some extent 

 from East Africa and Aden. Of exports from Bombay, which, as already 

 mentioned, do not distinguish other shells from cowries, &c, the value for the 

 year 191)3-04 amounted to Rs. 1,19,000, going almost entirely to the United 

 Kingdom and Trieste. 



The process of manufacture of mother-o'-pearl buttons is thus described in 

 Chamber's Encyclopaedia (188S). " Small cylinders are cut out of the ?hells with 

 a tubular saw. These are then split into discs, which are shaped by a steel 

 tool, drilled with holes and finally polished with rotton-stone and soft soap, or 

 by a more recent method with ground charcoal and turpentine." 



With the facilities that cheap labour provide, is there not surely a great field 

 for the development of the industry of manufacturing mother-o'-pearl articles 

 in this country, situated as it is so conveniently to the sources of supply ? 

 At present, it appears never to have been developed to any extent, and, so 

 far as I am aware, not a single one of the mother-o'-pearl articles that we 

 exhibit to-night was manufactured in India. 



The next important use of shells to which I shall refer is the Chunk or Conch 

 fishery of Southern India. These shells are obtained chiefly in the Gulf of 

 Manar and also at Travancore and Tuticorin. An important paper was published 

 in 1894 by Mr. Thurston dealing with the details of the fisheries and industry. 

 Besides being employed extensively as horns blown at temples, they are manu- 

 factured into a number of ornamental articles, such as bracelets, rings, buttons, 

 &c, and this industry is chiefly carried on at Dacca and also at Dinajpur and 

 Sylhet. Dr. Watt appeals for " more direct commercial particulars and more 

 recent facts, such as extent of trade, regions of supply, markets to which 

 exported, season procurable, prices, &c." 



In this connection I may perhaps here mention the same author's reference 

 to "the aquamarine shell carved work of Jaipur," but I am not acquainted with 



