Captain Srrvarr on the Pearl Fisheries of the Island of Ceylon. 453 
be properly a muscle, on account of its beard and the broad hinge of the 
shell. I will venture to say, however, that all fishermen would call them 
oysters, not only from the appearance of the shells, but also from that of 
the fish itself. On removing a wooden buoy that for about six weeks had 
been attached to an anchor in this port, it was brought on shore covered with 
pearl-oysters nearly as large as a shilling. The finest pearl in possession of 
the Maricair of Killicarre is said to have been obtained from a bank off 
Chilaw, but it appears that oysters very seldom arrive at perfection on any 
banks except those off Arippo ; the coral banks off the coasts of this island, 
lie from one to six or eight miles from the shore, generally exposed to the 
strength of the monsoons and currents: those near Arippo appear to be the 
least exposed. 
The three last fisheries on the Arippo banks have been in five and a-half 
to seven fathoms water, protected on the west and south-west by a ridge of 
sand and coral extending from the north point of an island called Caredivan. 
Coming from sea-ward, the depth of water over this ridge is two and three- 
quarters or three fathoms, but it rapidly deepens to seven fathoms in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the oyster beds, while, besides this peculiar 
protection from the violence of the south-west monsoon, the coral banks to 
the northward of the pearl banks are in many parts nearly level with the 
surface of the sea, and may form an essential safeguard to the oysters from 
the effect of the currents in the north-east monsoon. 
Thus secure in deep water lie the quiescent oysters, adhering to their 
coral homes, until age has enfeebled the fibres of their beards, when most 
of them break from their hold, and they are found in perfection on a sandy 
bottom near the coral beds. ‘Two-thirds of the oysters taken up last fishery 
were from such a situation. 
One of the most intelligent divers I have met with, fixes the age of the 
oyster at six years and a-half, when it breaks away from the rock: he does 
not think it can forsake the rock at its own pleasure, but when separated, 
it has the power of moving, on a sandy bottom generally, with the hinge 
directly in advance. When I first sounded on the ridge which runs from 
Caredivan Island, I was struck with its importance as a guide to the par- 
ticular spots of oysters, and was surprised I had never heard of its existence. 
I caused inquiry to be made, and after some time, was informed that the 
traditional account of it by the natives of that part of the country is, that a 
powerful queen once resided at Codremalli, and that the dead from the city were 
3N 2 
