98 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



fisheries are those of the Bahrein Islands in the Persian 

 Gulf, Coromandel, Catifa in Arabia (which produced 

 the pearls purchased by Tavernier for £110,000), the 

 Algerine Coast, the Sooloo Islands, and, in the Western 

 world, the Bay of Panama and the Coast of Columbia, 

 which had formerly some very valuable pearl-fisheries, 

 for Seville alone is said to have imported thence up- 

 wards of 697 lbs. in the year 1587. 



In Western Australia pearl-fishery grounds have 

 been discovered in the Torres Straits. 



In 1864 the pearl-fishery of Ceylon suffered con- 

 siderably, owing to an irruption of the skate fish, which 

 was said to have killed the pearl-oysters ; and the loss 

 of revenue was calculated at £50,000. 



A correspondent of the ■ Ceylon Observer/ says, 

 however, that the Ceylon pearl-fishery shows no sign of 

 languishing, and that a new bank had been fished, 

 the oysters from which are of a larger size than those 

 hitherto obtained from this fishery. The total amount 

 received by the government, in 1881, was £75,000 

 worth less than the largest fishery on record, viz., that 

 of 1814, which gave a return of £105,000 ; but in the 

 'Journal of the Society of Arts/ Aug. 12th, 1881, as 

 quoted from * Colonies and India/ it is said that the 

 pearl-fishery for that year had been one of the most 

 successful on record. The pearls from the oysters on 

 the banks situated off " Silavaturai/' on the western 

 coast of the island, have been famous for their purity, 

 shape, and colour, from time immemorial, and in these 

 attributes they far surpass those obtained from the 

 pearl-oysters of the Persian Gulf, although, as a rule, 

 inferior in size to the latter. . . . The pearl-oyster is 

 said to be migratory in its habits, and for one cause or 



