542 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
ment of the fishery are embodied in the desired report. Apart 
from the matters entailing ordinary official attention, advantage 
was taken of the opportunities afforded me during my visit to 
Torres Straits to initiate a series of experiments in the direction 
of ascertaining the possibility of bringing the living pearl-shell in 
alive from the more remote fishing-grounds, and of laying it down 
and cultivating it in the readily accessible inshore waters. The 
results obtained in connection with these investigations were of 
so satisfactory a nature, and are, if ultimately followed up, 
calculated to exert so far-reaching an influence upon the future 
development of the pearl and pearl-shell fisheries of the Austra- 
lan continent, that I have considered a brief account of them, 
together with an enumeration of the means and methods employed 
in their realisation, might form an appropriate contribution to the 
Proceedings of the Australian Association for the Advancement 
of Science. With the sanction of the Queensland Government, 
they are accordingly submitted. 
It may be mentioned, in the first place, that previous to the 
date of these investigations the most contrary views were prevalent 
among those engaged in the shelling industry concerning the 
life-history and natural habits of the mother-of-pearl shell, 
Meleagrina margaritifera, whilst little or no credence was 
attached by them to the possibility of bringing the shell in alive 
and cultivating it artificially. By way of illustrating the variety 
of opinions that were upheld, it was affirmed by many of the 
pearl-shell divers that the mollusc remained permanently fixed in 
its ocean bed throughout every phase of its existence. By others 
it was asserted that the shell had no means of attaching itself, 
but that at the same time it remained perfectly quiescent in its 
selected habitat. By yet a third section it was as strenuously 
maintained that the pearl shell was a migratory animal, that was 
constantly moving from place to place. Had this last-named 
theory proved to be the correct one, all attempts at artificial 
cultivation would have necessarily proved abortive, the impounded 
shells being liable, after the manner of scallops (genus /ecéen), 
Lima, and other allied types, to take unto themselves wings and 
fly away. As the experiments demonstrated, however, neither 
of the three theories propounded were in precise accord with the 
actual facts. 
By a fortunate coincidence I arrived at Thursday Island at a 
period that enabled me almost immediately to acquire some 
important information concerning the life habits of this shell-fish. 
A few weeks only prior to my arrival, 10th August, a diver, who 
had been employed to examine the bottom of the storage hulk, 
the Star of Peace, for the purpose of repairs, found growing upon 
it a quantity of shells, which were pronounced by some to be the 
young of the true pearl-shell. Noattempt was made to keep these 
shells alive. They were merely dried and cleaned, and in that 
