130 PEARLS [CH. 



Several attempts have been made at one place or 

 another to i-aise oysters in tanks or docks so that the 

 young spat would be saved and could be cultivated. 

 So far, practically no signs of any success of economic 

 value seem ever to have been in sight. The nearest 

 approach to success was the attempt of Mr Haynes 

 (afterwards the work of a syndicate, the Montebello 

 Shell Syndicate, Ltd.) at the Montebello Islands. 

 A tidal pond of considerable extent was made and 

 several hundred oysters were laid down as breeding 

 stock. Young oysters did appear, but Jameson con- 

 siders them not to have been the young of the 

 breeding stock, but to have been immigrants from 

 the sea, of another species. Eventually these also 

 disappeared. So far, therefore, nothing but expense 

 has resulted fi'om this effort. 



There is no doubt whatever, as Jameson states, 

 that the Government of Australia should very 

 seriously consider this pearl oyster industr}^ It can 

 only be improved by a thorough and detailed in- 

 vestigation by qualified scientists and pearl-shellers. 



Finally, a glance at the scientific inquiry into 

 the Ceylon Pearl Fishery, the results which followed 

 and the advice tendered to the Government may give 

 the readers of this little work some idea of the 

 problems which have to be faced. It was in the 

 year 1900 that the Government of Ceylon, after 

 a period of ten barren years, began to consider 



