2 14 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



parent pink-spotted lobster, and has been identified for the author b}' Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., of the British Museum, as the Alplieus avanis of Fabricius. Figures of these two 

 interesting "commensals" are delineated in Figs. 12 and 13, respectively, of Chromo plate No. 

 XIV. A small, transparent, eel-like fish, Fierasfer, which occurs similarly as a commensal within 

 the mother-of-pearl shells of the Western Australian fisheries, does not appear to frequent 

 those of Torres Strait. An allied species, however, as recorded in the succeeding chapter, 

 takes up its abode within the body-cavity of a Barrier Reef Beche-de-mer. Dr. Woodward, 

 the authority on Crustacea above quoted, published a few years since [Proceedings of flic 

 Zoological Society, 1S86) an interesting account of a commensal Pea-crab, Pinnotheres, tiiat 

 was found entombed within the nacre of a Western Australian pearl-shell. In the national 

 collection there is an example of a fish, Fierasfer, from the same colony, similarly embedded. 

 In both instances it may be surmised that the commensal organisms died within the mantle- 

 folds of the Meleagrina, and that the mollusc, being unable to eject their dead bodies, enshrouded 

 tliem. 



EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONS. 



Among the most important undertakings during the author's investigations of the mother- 

 of-pearl shell fishing grounds of Torres Strait was that of ascertaining by direct experiment 

 if it were not possible to bring pearl-shell alive from the outer grounds, and to lay it down 

 and cultivate it in the shallower water adjacent to the shelling stations ; also, with the same 

 object in view, that of acquiring a much-needed information concerning the development and 

 habits of this valuable mollusc. It was thought that, should the proposed operations prove 

 capable of practical application, a very much more extensive and permanently profitable de- 

 velopment of the pearl and pearl-shell fisheries would be rendered feasible ; it being difficult 

 indeed to predict the far-reaching limits to which the}' might be extended. 



Up to the date of these investigations, the most contrary views were prevalent among those 

 engaged in the shelling industry, concerning the life-history and natural habits of the mother-of- 

 pearl shell, Meleagrina margaritifera ; while little or no credence was attached by them to the 

 possibility, suggested by the author, of bringing in the shell alive and cultivating it artificially. 

 By way of illustrating the variety of opinions that were upheld : It was affirmed bj' many of the 

 pearl-shell divers that the mollusc remained permanently fixed in its ocean bed through every 

 stage of its existence. By others it was asserted that the shell had no means of attaching itself, 

 but that at the same time it remained permanently quiescent in its selected habitat. B)' yet a 

 third section, it ,was as strenuously maintained that the pearl-shell was a migratory animal that 

 was constantly moving from place to place. Had this last-named theory proved to be the correct 

 one, all attempts at artificial cultivation would have necessarily been failures ; the impounded 

 shells being liable, after the manner of scallops, genus Pecten, Lima, and other allied types, to take 



