200 SPOLIA ZEYLANTCA. 



Before a fishery is settled upon , the Inspector has in the previous 

 November to hft a sample of about 20,000 oysters, extract the 

 pearls in the mamier I have explained, and have them valued. This 

 is done by native Moormen jewellers, by secret hand-clasps under 

 a cloth. After sifting and weighing the pearls through these brass 

 sieves and on dehcate scales, the value is fixed on the old Portuguese 

 or Dutch coinage, and, finally, when the amount is estimated in the 

 current coin of the realm, it is determined whether a fishery will pay. 

 As a matter of fact, the valuation come to is in very little 

 relationship to the market value of the sample. 



The examination and inspection of the pearl banks is carried out 

 by native divers under the superintendence of the Inspector of Pearl 

 Banks, who also checks and verifies the native divers' reports as 

 to the nature of the bottom, number of oysters present, &c., and 

 sometimes inspects himself in the divmg dress. 



The inspection boats, six-oared whalers, start from the windward 

 side of the area to be inspected and work across the wind east and 

 west, between the buoys, which a reference to the accompanying 

 chart* will show, are laid down north and south, east and west, in 

 such a manner as to direct the boats on their east and west course 

 and prevent their getting out of position. Each coxswain is provided 

 with a chart, on which the result of each dive is recorded with the 

 soundings, the signs shown on the chart being used to represent the 

 nature of the bottom, &c. 



The smaller charts, known as " coxswain charts," are filled in 

 by each coxswain as each dive is made, and they are transferred by 

 the Inspector to the larger chart. 



The Ceylon oyster is different from the Australian or Burma 

 varieties, which are very large, and have beautiful nacre or mother-of- 

 pearl, which is most valuable, and for which they are fished quite 

 apart from the finding of pearls, whilst the Ceylon pearl oyster has 

 little mother-of-pearl, and what it has is of small value commercially. 

 It is only possible to fish the Ceylon oyster from early in March 

 until late in April. 



All the facts collected during recent years serve to show that a 

 spatf all on the Ceylon banks is dependent upon exotic larvae which 

 have been carried over from the Tuticorin side of the Gulf of 

 Mamiar. In a continuously strong monsoon such as we have been 

 favoured with this year, but particularly durmg the months of July 

 and August, a drift current of sufficient power and velocity may 

 carry the pelagic larvae, which float for about six days, from the 

 Tuticorin banks to the banks on our side of the Gulf. In a weak 

 monsoon, however, the larvae never reach the Ceylon banks, since 

 they arc carried northwards and may be deposited on the other 

 side of the Paumben Pass. 



* Not reproducod. 



