PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 205 



South of King's Sound on the Western Australian sea-board, the coast-line 

 is for the most part far too open and exposed, and, within the tropics, subject to the 

 risks indicated in the preceding paragraph, for the encouragement of prospects 

 of successful Pearl-shell cultivation. From King's Sound northward, however, 

 which is outside the hurricane zone, there are almost limitless areas that might be 

 eligible for such an industry when the country is more settled. Making the 

 most of the few facilities that were available, the writer was enabled to demon- 

 strate the possibility of cultivating the large Mother-of-Pearl shell in Western 

 Australian waters under seemingly altogether unfavourable conditions. The site elected 

 in this instance was no other than a mangrove swamp, close to Broome, in Roebuck 

 Bay, which had a firmer bottom than the general run of these areas, and in which 

 natural ponds of a foot or two in depth were left by the retreating tide. At the 

 writer's suggestion, and on his supplying him with cultivation frames as used at 

 Thursday Island, Mr. G. S. Streeter obtained a suitable selection of living pearl-oysters 

 and laid them down in one of the indicated ponds. As the result, within a year 

 of the initiation of the experiment, the shells had not only increased in size but com- 

 menced to propagate, several young ones being attached to the parent shells and to 

 the substance of the wood and wire frames. 



A photograph of this site in the mangrove thicket forms the lower of the two 

 illustrations in Plate XXXV. This was necessarily taken at extreme low tide ; two 

 of the cultivation frames have been lifted out of the pool on to the surrounding bank, 

 and one of them is propped open to display its contents. Among these a. matured 

 shell, which has been purposely tilted against the lid of the frame, distinctly shows 

 one of the locally grown young shells attached to its surface. Except for the 

 presence of these oyster-frames it might be supposed that this picture represented a 

 piece of inland sylvan scenery, a happy interblending of wood and stream, in the 

 depths, maybe, of Epping Forest. Appearances are, however, in this case eminently 

 deceptive. At high water of spring tides these trees are more than half submerged 

 by the sea, which not unfrequently comes rolling through them and breaks with 

 considerable force upon the beach on the shoreward side of this forest-like mangrove 

 band. The trees composing this woodland scene consist almost exclusively of what 

 are known as the White Mangrove, Amcennia officinalis. A very characteristic feature 

 of this type are the somewhat asparagus-like vertical sprouts, known locally as 

 " Cobbler's pegs," which are developed in more or less thickly aggregated bunches 

 from their horizontally extending roots. Numbers of these structures are visible close 



