CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES. 199 



In the year 1902 I obtained two pearls out of a common mussel 

 attached to a buoy in this harbour, and it is curious that I have 

 never found any mussels since here. These pearls were of a very 

 delicate slatey blue colour and were of considerable size ; one was 

 without a flaw and perfectly round, and the other, which was the 

 larger, had a considerable flaw on its surface. 



When a fishery is estabHshed, and the divers, &c., have arrived, 

 they are divided into two parties and fish on alternate days. They 

 are allotted one-third of their catch in payment, whilst Government 

 auctions the remainder the same evenmg. 



The oysters are then placed in private kottus, or enclosures, by 

 their purchasers and allowed to rot for eight to ten days by merely 

 placing them in a receptacle (generally a canoe, which is covered 

 over to shade it from the rays of the smi and the light, but enables 

 the flies to obtain free access), after which the contents are washed 

 with a copious supply of clean water, and the shells, stones, and 

 byssus, &c., picked out. The residue is then spread on a clean cloth 

 to dry, during which operation it is carefully scrutinized and picked 

 over again and again many times. I alwaj^s used a length of 

 black calico, on which pearls are much more easily distinguished 

 than in the older method with a white cloth, and I also used a 

 galvanized iron bath for the rottmg process in preference to a 

 wooden canoe. I tried brass tea sifters of various meshes, but 

 found the old white muslin method the best and cheapest for sifting 

 and straming. 



The apparatus used for classing, &c., the pearls is a series of 

 brass cullenders, about the size of tobacco ash trays, which are 

 called baskets. They have holes hi the bottom of each, each hole 

 being of equal size in its omii basket, thus makmg various meshed 

 sieves ; the sieve with the largest-sized holes has twenty holes only, 

 M'hilst that with the smallest holes has several hundreds ; there are 

 generally ten or twelve of these sieves or baskets. 



Pearls, as you know, vary in size from the almost indistuiguishable 

 minute seed pearl to the size of a large pea, and sometimes larger. 

 The result of this is that whilst the larger pearls are all found in the 

 course of sifting, the tiniest seed pearls are left in large numbers in 

 the sand near the oyster- washmg places, and for months after a 

 fishery is over and the camp abandoned to desolation and jungle, 

 men and women — mostly women — are met with searching the sands 

 for these minute treasures ; and that they find these mfinitesimal 

 pearls cannot be doubted, as I doubt such patient perseverance 

 without some adequate reward. 



Seed pearls, namety, these minute specimens, are largely used by 

 Indian princes, pounded up to powder to form the chunam for their 

 betel-chewmg, whilst, as the ladies present all know, Avhat pretty 

 embroidery and cluster necklaces thej' make. 



