PEARL SHELLS. 241 
tax, but the fishery of Ceylon is a monopoly in the 
hands of government. 
A very interesting and graphic account of this 
fishery is given by Captain Percival, from whose 
‘History of Ceylon” the following particulars 
are extracted. 
“There is perhaps no spectacle,’ says the 
author, ‘‘ which the island of Ceylon affords more 
striking to a European than the Bay of Condatchy 
during the season of the pearl fishery. This desert 
and barren spot is at that time converted into a 
scene which exceeds, in novelty and variety, almost 
anything I ever witnessed: several thousands of 
people of different colours, countries, castes and 
occupations continually passing and repassing in a 
busy erowd; the vast numbers of small tents and 
huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or market- 
place before each; the multitude of boats returning 
in the afternoon from the pearl banks, some of 
them laden with riches; the anxious expecting 
countenances of the boat owners, while the boats 
are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and 
avidity with which they run to them when arrived, 
in hopes of a rich cargo; the vast numbers of 
jewellers, brokers, merchants of all colours and all 
descriptions, both natives and foreigners, who are 
occupied in some way or other with the pearls, 
some separating and assorting them, others weigh- 
ing and ascertaining their number and value, while 
others are hawking them about or drilling and 
boring them for future use,—all these circumstances 
tend to impress the mind with the value and im- 
portance of that object which can of itself create 
this scene. 
“The Bay of Condatchy is the most central 
R 
