UNPEOFITABLE RESULTS. 295 



personally examined the situation of the banks, 

 I found the entire line of coast from Kutch to 

 Kurrachee giving evidence of the existence of 

 the oyster. It appearing to me that several 

 spots might be fished with advantage, I engaged 

 boats and forty divers, but after a month's la- 

 bour, at what appeared to be the most product- 

 ive banks, the expenses incurred exceeded the 

 value of the pearls produced. 



" The harbour of Kurrachee has been twice 

 since that period let out for rs. 800 and rs. 

 1300 : the contractors, however, in each case, 

 after several examinations, found it advisable to 

 suspend operations, under the conviction that 

 the oysters were too few and too scattered to 

 pay the expense of collecting them. 



" In this conclusion I am disposed to concur, 

 and to express my belief that the power vested 

 (during the time of the Ameers) in the hands of 

 the farmer, of pressing the labour of Mohanees 

 and others, and obliging tliem to work at a 

 nominal rate of wages, constituted the chief 

 value of the pearl fishery. 



" When forced labour was abolished by Sir 

 Charles Napier, and men were allowed to take 

 service wherever their interests prompted them, 



