Chap. VII.] CORAL IXSECT. — PEARL FISHERY. 555 



Valentyn says, that the iiaiiic of Adam's Bridge was 

 first conferred on it hy the Portuguese ^ ; but tliere is 

 existing evidence to show that centuries before the ap- 

 pearance of the Portuguese in the East, the Arabs be- 

 lieved that Adam had passed by this way into Ceylon.^ 



In coasting along this remarkable shore, the extreme 

 purity of the water enabled us to see, with astonishing 

 distinctness, the coral groves which rise in the clear 

 blue depths, and conceal the surface of the sand and 

 rocks. Tliek branches, when severed, are exquisitely 

 beautiful, so long as they retain the faint purple halo 

 that plays around their ivory tips, but which dis- 

 appears after a very short exposure to the au'^ ; so 

 rapidly does atmospheric exposure affect them, that 

 immediately after withdrawing them from the water, 

 we almost fail to recognise the lovely objects which a 

 moment before Avere o-lowino; in the still recesses below. 

 The cilia and bright tentacula of the pol}^3i are with- 

 drawn and concealed the instant the coral is disturbed, 

 but these, when expanded in the water, cover the suiface 

 with brilliant tints, intense crimson and emerald green. 

 Feeding amongst them, are to be seen nuchbranchiate 

 moUusca and ajdi/sia of strange forms ; and through tlie 

 branches dart small fishes, with scales that ghsten like 

 enamelled silver. 



Manaar appears to be the island of Epiodorus, which, 

 according to the Periplus^ was the seat of the pearl 

 fishery.'* At the present day, its importance has 

 greatly decHned. The Portuguese, who wrested it 

 from the Eaja of Jaffna, in 1560^, fortified the town 



' Valentyit, Oitd en Kietiw Oost- 

 Indien, ch. xv. p. 235. 



^ See a pa8.^aiie in Kaswixi's 

 Ajaih el Makhlouhat, written in the 

 tliirtceutli century, and quoted by 

 Sir W. OuSELKY. — Traveh, ^-c, vol. 

 i. p. 37. 



3 Pliny says that the soldiers of 

 Alexander noticed the purple halo 



which plays about the coral in the \ ii. cb. xv. vol. ii. p. 20G. 

 Indian seas when first \\itlidra\vn 



from tlie water, " in alto quasdam 

 arbusculas colore bubuli conins 

 raniosas et cacuminihui^ rubenfes." — 

 Pliny, Xaf. Hid., lib. xiii. ch. Ii. 



* Peripliis, ch. lix. See Vincent, 

 vol. ii. p. 489. 



^ De Couto, dec. vii. lib. iii. ch. 

 V. voL iv. pt. i. p. 210; Valextyn, 

 ch. xii. p. 147 ; Fari v Y Souza, pt. 



