560 THE XORTHERX FORESTS. [Part IX. 



most ends of the earth in search of the precious pearls 

 for which this giilf is renowned. On approaching it 

 tlie percej^tible landmark is a building erected by Lord 

 Guildford, as a temporary residence for the Governor, 

 and known by the name of the " Doric," from the style 

 of its architecture. A few coco-nut palms appear next 

 above the low sandy beach, and presently are discovered 

 the scattered houses which form the villages of Aripo and 

 Condatchy. 



Between these two places, or rather between the Kal- 

 aar and Arrive rivers, the shore is raised to a height of 

 many feet, by enormous mounds of sheUs, the accumu- 

 lations of ages, the millions of oysters ^, robbed of their 

 pearls, having been year after year flung into heaps, that 

 extend for a distance of many miles. 



During the progress of a fishery, this singular and 

 dreary expanse becomes suddenly enlivened by the 

 crowds who congregate from distant parts of India ; a 

 town is improvised by the construction of temporary 

 dwelhngs, huts of timber and cajans, with tents of palm 

 leaves or canvas ; and bazaars spring up, to feed the mul- 

 titude on land, as well as the seamen and divers in the 

 fleets of boats that cover the bay. 



My visit to the pearl banks was made in company with 

 Capt. Steuart, the official inspector, and my immediate 

 object was to inquire into the causes of the suspension of 

 the fisheries, and to ascertain the probabihty of reviving 

 a source of revenue, the gross receipts from which had 

 failed for several years to defray the cost of con- 

 servancy. In fact, as it afterwards proved, the pearl 

 banks, between 1837 and 1854, were an annual charge, 

 instead of producing an annual income, to the colony. 

 The conjecture, hastily adopted, to account for the dis- 

 appearance of mature shells, had reference to mechanical 



1 It is almost imnecessary to say f Avicula, or moro oorrcctly, Melea- 

 tliat the shell fish which iirochices 1 grina. It is the Mflcagrina Mnn/a- 

 the true Oriental pearls is not an j ritifera of Lamarck, 

 oyster, but belongs to the genus I 



