An Account of the Pearl Fifbery at Ceylon. 347 
_ they are undivided, parallel, and flattened. In general, the 
éyffus is more than three quarters of an inch without the 
cleft (rima); but if the animal is difturbed, it contraéts it 
confiderably. The top of each of thefe threads terminates 
in a circular gland or head, like the jzigma of many plants. 
With this 4y/Jus they faften themfelves to rocks, corals, and 
other folid bodies; by it the young pearl fifh cling to the 
old ones, and with it the animal procures its food, by ex- 
tending and contracting it at pleafure. Small fhell fith, on 
which they partly live, are often found clinging to the for- 
mer. The ftomach lies clofe to the root of the beard, and 
has, on its lower fide, a protracted obtufe point. Above the 
ftomach are two fmall red bodies, like lungs; and from the 
ftomach goes a long channel or gut, which takes a-circuit 
round the mufcular column above mentioned, and ends in 
the anus, which lies oppofite to the mouth, and is covered 
with a {mall thin leaf, like a flap. Though the natives pre- 
tend to diftinguifh the fexes by the appearance of the fhell, 
I could not find any genitalia. The large flat ones they 
call males, and thofe that are thick, concave, and vaulted, 
they call females, or pedoo-chippy; but, on a clofe infpec- - 
tion, I could not obferve any vifible fexual difference, 
It is remarkable that fome of thefe animals are as red as 
blood, and that the infide of the fhell has the fante colour, 
with the ufual pearly luftre; though my fervants found a 
reddifh pearl in an oyfter of this colour, yet fuch an event is 
very raré. The divers attribute this rednefs to the ficknefs 
of the pearl fifth, though it 1s moft probable that they had it 
from their firft exiftence. In the fhade they will live twenty- 
four hours after being taken out of the water. This animal 
is eaten by the lower clafs of Indians, either frefh in. their 
curries, or cured by drying; in which ftate they are exported 
to the coaft; though I do nat think them by any means 
palatable. 
Within a mother-of-pearl fhell I found thirteen murices 
nydati (vide Chemnitz’s New Sy{tem, Cabt. Vol, XI. tab. 192, : 
f, 1851 and 1852), the largeft of which was three quarters 
of an inch Jong; but, as many of them were putrid, and the 
pearl fifh itfelf ie id, T could not afcertain whether they had 
Yy2 crept 
