CEYLON PEAEL BANKS. 207 



until 1905, and the results are to be found in the live volumes 

 published by the Royal Society. The commencement of these 

 operations happened to coincide with the appearance of large deposits 

 of spat on the banks, so that from the beginnmg of their work 

 Herdman and Hornell had material at hand, and they were able to 

 follow the oyster through all the later stages of its development. 

 Every branch of the investigations was prosecuted with great vigour, 

 and the researches of these four years were very fruitful. 



In addition to the arduous duties of inspections and the distrac- 

 tions of the two largest fisheries on record, the two main lines of 

 inquiry may be said to have been, first, the examination of the pearl 

 oyster from every point of vie w , including structure, life -history , and 

 bionomics. In Volume V. of his reports, Herdman summaiizes the 

 work done and makes a series of recommendations. These will be 

 discussed later. The second important piece of work was concerned 

 with pearl formation and the jDcarl-inducing parasite. 



A second phase was entered upon in 1906, when the Ceylon 

 Company of Pearl Fishers obtained a lease of the beds. Mr. Hornell's 

 services -VAere retained for both the biological and surveying work, 

 and Professor Herdman was appointed scientific adviser to the 

 Company. 



There is no pubhshed record of any scientific Mork done during the 

 years 1 906 and 1 907 . Doubtless the two fisheries which took place in 

 these 3'ears occupied all the time of Mr. Hornell in his double role, 

 but the Company were not perhaps serving their own interests best 

 by practising economy at the expense of the scientific investigations, 

 upon the result of which, as recent events have shown, they believed 

 so much to depend. The biological position was sufiiciently difficult 

 to demand the whole time and energy of the Marine Biologist, 

 without saddling him with navigating and surveying work, which 

 ought properly to have been assigned to a man of proved nautical 

 experience, which Mr. Hornell admittedly was not. When he left 

 the services of the Company in 1908, this defect was remedied by 

 two appointments being made in respect of the duties previously 

 performed by Mr. Hornell alone. Mr. Southwell, who had been 

 Hornell's assistant, was placed in charge of the biological work, and 

 Captain Kerkham was made responsible for the navigations and 

 surveying. 



The reports of the Company show that the Chairman and Directors 

 pinned their faith upon the anticipated results of the scientific 

 investigations. Therefore, it is surprising to find that since the 

 fortunes of the Company were regarded as being so dependent upon 

 the scientific efforts, no results of the scientific operation on the 

 Company's banks were published for nearly four years. The first 

 scientific report which dealt with the operations on the banks under 

 lease did not appear till May, 1910. Possibly during this blank 

 period the Directors received reports upon the progress of operations 



