9 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



fisheries are those of the Bahrein Islands in the Persian 

 Gulf, Coromandel, Catifa in Arabia (which produced 

 the pearls purchased by Tavernier for 110,000), the 

 Algerine Coast, the Sooloo Islands, and, in the Western 

 world, the Bay of Panama and the Coast of Columbia, 

 which had formerly some very valuable pearl-fisheries, 

 for Seville alone is said to have imported thence up- 

 wards of 697 Ibs. in the year 1587. 



In Western Australia pearl-fishery grounds have 

 been discovered in the Torres Straits. 



In 1864 the pearl-fishery of Ceylon suffered con- 

 siderably, owing to an irruption of the skate fish, which 

 was said to have killed the pearl-oysters ; and the loss 

 of revenue was calculated at 50,000. 



A correspondent of the ' Ceylon Observer/ says, 

 however, that the Ceylon pearl-fishery shows no sign of 

 languishing, and that a new bank had been fished, 

 the oysters from which are of a larger size than those 

 hitherto obtained from this fishery. The total amount 

 received by the government, in 1881, was 75,000 

 worth less than the largest fishery on record, viz., that 

 of 1814, which gave a return of 105,000 ; but in the 

 'Journal of the Society of Arts/ Aug. 12th, 1881, as 

 quoted from ' Colonies and India,' it is said that the 

 pearl-fishery for that year had been one of the most 

 successful on record. The pearls from the oysters on 

 the banks situated off " Silavaturai," on the western 

 coast of the island, have been famous for their purity, 

 shape, and colour, from time immemorial, and in these 

 attributes they far surpass those obtained from the 

 pearl-oysters of the Persian Gulf, although, as a rule, 

 inferior in size to the latter. . . . The pearl-oyster is 

 said to be migratory in its habits, and for one cause or 



