25 



but every proprietor of a holding with a favourable foreshore 

 having a pearl-shell bed under personal supervision. 



There is yet another direction in which substantial profits may 

 arise through the recently-demonstrated possibility of artificially 

 cultivating pearl-shell. As already indicated the peaids, as well 

 as the pearl-shell, will be under the control of the cultivators, in 

 place of being smuggled away as so usually occurs under the 

 existing conditions of the fishery. Going beyond this, I am pre- 

 pared to maintain that the artificial production of pearls is by no 

 means beyond the pale of human possibility. This suggestion as 

 an idea is by no means a novel one ; it has occurred to many 

 minds, the chief obstacle hitherto to its practical development 

 being the inability to obtain the living material to work upon. 

 Knowing what the Chinese have accomplished towards the pro- 

 duction of artificial pearls and pearl-coated images of Buddha in 

 the fresh water mussel, Dipsas plica tus, it is reasonable to infer 

 that as much or more might be achieved by the scientific treat- 

 ment of the true pearl-shell, Jlelear/n'/ia marcjariiifera. A 

 little later on, I shall possibly be in a position to record some- 

 thing more definite upon this interesting subject, and will refer to 

 it 041 the present occasion only as one that might be scientifically 

 approached, and successfully followed up, at a marine laboratory 

 established at Thursday Island. In addition to the large mother- 

 of-pearl shell, many other allied species of the genus Meh'iKjrina 

 and Avicula occur in Torres Straits, and are well woithy of atten- 

 tion with relation to their pearl-producing capabilities. Many of 

 these abound indeed throughout the Queensland coast. 



The beche-de-mer fisheries represent another important in- 

 dustry that might be substantially benefitted by the establishment 

 of a marine observatoi'y, with a trained staff of scientific investi- 

 gators, at Thurslay Island. Little or nothing is known as yet 

 concerning the reproductive phenomena and life habits of the 

 numerous commercial species of trepaug or beche-de-mer. It is 

 quite possible that their propagation might be greatly accelerated 

 by the application of methods of culture, discoverable only in 

 connection with ])volonged scientific investigations, at such an 



