CEYLON PEARL OYSTER FISHERIES. 203 



their food is or may be supplied by the outflow of the river bringing 

 it to them. Anyhow, if this, the food theory, is incorrect, there is 

 no doubt that oysters, both edible and pearl-bearing, do congregate 

 off the mouths of fresh water rivers round the coast of this Island. 



Fish are not, according to my experience, plentiful on the pearl 

 banks, and an indication of this is the small number of fishermen ; 

 sharks are rare there, whilst on the south and east coast of Ceylon 

 the 3^ exist in great numbers. I remember being becalmed in a 

 sailing ship about twenty-five years ago, and seeing and catching 

 them by the score for one whole twenty-four hours in the lower part 

 of the Bay of Bengal ; there was one ancient gentleman, however, 

 who swam lazily up to our stern and spent the four hours, from 

 midnight to 4 a.m., sucking in the bait of succulent fat salt pork 

 and just letting it slide out of his mouth whenever I endeavoured 

 to hook him. The supposed origin of the seaman's mermaid is a 

 rare form of marine mammal occasionally seen on the pearl banks, 

 called the dugong. Looking at the specimen mounted in this 

 building, it is difficult to believe that the romantic old sailor, 

 however long he had been at sea without coming in contact with 

 the opposite sex, could ever insult them by mistaking the dugong 

 for a charmer of the fair sex, no, not even for a suffragette. 

 We all know how marine artists have idealized into the loveliest of 

 women the mermaid. Like the whale, these fish suckle their young 

 at the breast, where their food glands are situated, and perhaps this 

 is the origin of the mermaid myth. Another fish, also seen on the 

 pearl banks, is the globe fish. It is a l>ig-headed slow-swimming 

 fish, which, when disturbed, blows itself out into a globe covered with 

 spikes, and at the same time becomes quite helpless. 



It is said that a Venetian visited the pearl banks between L563 

 and 1588, named Csesar Frederick, but nothmg is known of his 

 objects or their results. The Dutch, during the whole of their 

 occupation of Ceylon, only had four good fisheries, namely, in the 

 year 1732; in 1747, when they made £21,400; in 1748, when they 

 made £38,580 ; and in 1749, when they made £68,000. This in a 

 ])eriod of 140 years does not seem very good. There is a record 

 in the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal, No. 456, III., of a fishery at 

 Trincomalee of Ceylon pearl oysters in the year 1750. 



The pearl necklace captured from Raja Jaipat by Mahmud in the 

 year 1001 a.d. was valued at £100,000, but whether of Ceylon origin 

 I cannot say, though it is quite likely to have been. 



Servilia, the mother of Brutus, received a pearl from Caesar worth 

 £50,000, and Cleopatra's earrings were valued at £161,000. 



The most perfect pearl ever discovered was bought in the year 

 1633 by the vShah of Persia for about £10,266 from an Arab, who 

 brought it from Catifa, a fishery opposite Bhareen in the Persian Gulf. 



Another Bhareen pearl of 12 carats weight belonged to the Prince 

 of Muscat, who was offered 40,000 crowns, equal to £10,000, for it. 



2 E 6(7)12 



