126 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



Herdman's Summary and Recommendations. 



; . A complaint is again made that published information 

 regarding the gut contents of fishes is not available, as such 

 information would have been of interest in comparing the 

 fish fauna of the banks during fishery years and non-fishery 

 years. All available information could again have been had 

 for the asking. We showed that a bed of 400,000,000 spat 

 had been destroyed on the Periya Paar Kariya during 1908. 

 The opportunity is still present for determining the conditions 

 during barren years. If all the information which Dr. Pearson 

 appears to require had been available, there would have been 

 but little work left for him to do on the pearl banks. With 

 reference to transplanting. Dr. Pearson states that it has not 

 been carried on in a proper maimer. As far as I know, only 

 one opportunity for transplanting occurred. That was during 

 December, 1907, when spat, estimated at between nine and 

 ten millions, was transplanted from the Periya Paar to the 

 Cheval Paar by Capt. Cribb during Mr. Hornell's managership. 

 If these operations had been successful, the oysters would 

 have been fished in due course. Dr. Pearson states that no 

 subsequent report indicates whether the experiment was a 

 success or a failure. He is m error in stating that I trans- 

 planted 9,000,000 spat. No spat was ever transplanted by 

 me, nor did I anywhere state that I had done so. After 

 Hornell's retirement I made an attempt to discover the reason 

 why the transplanting operations had failed. My remarks 

 will be found in the Ceylon Marine Biological Reports, and 

 these remarks refer to the oysters transplanted by Hornell. 



The only deposit of spat which occurred during my period 

 of office was that found on the Periya Paar Kariya, and this 

 deposit was annihilated by voracious fish, an account of which 

 Avill be found in Part IV., Ceylon Marine Biological Reports. 

 It is idle for Dr. Pearson to remark that subsequent to Herd- 

 man's reports there is Httle evidence to show that efforts were 

 made to seriously guard against the alleged evils of overfishing 

 and overcrowding. A serious attempt was made to trans- 

 plant on the only occasion which presented, when, as we have 

 seen, between nine and ten millions spat were transplanted. 

 The operations occupied six weeks and cost probably well over 



