An Account of the Pearl Fifbery at Ceylon. 337 
_yifit the banks annually, and to give their opinion, whether 
a fifhery might be underiaken with any degree of fuccefs*? 
From yarious accounts, which I have collected from good 
authority, and the experience of thofe who affifted at fuch 
examinations, I conjecture, that every feven years fuch a 
general fifhery could be attempted with advantage, as this 
interval feems fufficient for the pearl fhells to attain their 
growth: I am alfo confirmed in this opinion by a report, — 
made by a Dutch governor at Jafuas, of all the fitheries that 
have been undertaken at Ceylon fince whit 3 a tranflation of 
which is to be found in Wolfe’s Travels into Ceylon. But 
the ruinous condition “in which the divers leave the pearl 
banks at each fifhery, by attending only to the profit of in- 
dividuals, and not to that of the public, is one great caufe 
that it requires twice the above-mentioned fpace of time, and 
fometimes longer, for rendering the fifhing productive. They 
do not pay the leaft attention to fpare the young and imma- 
ture fhells that contain no pearl; heaps of them are feen 
thrown out of the boats as ufelefs on the beach between 
Manar f¢ and Aripoo: if thefe had been fuffered to remain 
in their native beds, they would, no doubt, have produced 
many fine pearls. It might therefore be advifable to oblige 
the boat-people to throw them into the fea again before the 
boats leave the bank. If this circumfpedticn, in fparing the 
fall pearl {hells to perpetuate the breed, was always ob- 
ferved, fucceeding fifheries might be expe€ted fooner, and 
with ftill greater fuccefs: but the negle& of this fimple pre- 
caution will, I fear, be attended with fimilar fatal confe- 
quences here, as have*already happened to the pearl banks 
~ on the coalt of Perfia, South America, and Sweden, where 
> 2 
the fifherics are by no means fo profitable at prefent as they 
were formerly. 
Another caufe of the deftruction of numbers of both old 
and young pearl fhells is the anchoring of fo many boats 
* A gentleman, who affifted at one of the laft vifits, being an engincer, 
drew a chart of the banks, by which their fituation and fize are now better 
known than formerly. 
+ Manara, properly Manar, is a Tamul word, and sacle a fandy 
fiver, from the fhallownefs of the fea at that place. 
‘Vox.. V. Met on 
