CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



expenditure of a few thousand pounds annually in cultching the banks and trans- 

 planting the young oysters, it is evident that the proceeding will be economically a 

 sound one. 



Mr. HORNELL, since I left him on the pearl banks in April, 1902, has kept me 

 supplied with frequent letters and occasional longer reports constituting, in fact, a 

 journal of his doings and a discussion of his observations. He has now furnished me 

 with a very full report upon the record fishery of 1904, and from this, supplemented 

 by the letters received from him during the progress of the fishery, I have drawn up 

 the following account. This Report upon our pearl oyster investigation would, I 

 feel, have been incomplete without some description of the conditions under which a 

 great fishery is held and of the methods adopted, both administrative and scientific, 

 on the occasion. 



Mr. HORNELL'S MS. report, though giving most valuable information, was not in a 

 form intended for publication. It was sent to me as material to make use of. Parts 

 of it, such as details of the " Racial types represented among the divers," are more or 

 less irrelevant to our present purpose ; other parts, such as discussions of the value of 

 " Beacon marks," lists of " Casualties," and record of " Services of Staff," are of purely 

 local interest from the administrative point of view. Consequently a good deal has 

 been omitted and much has been re-cast. I have frequently, however, as will be 

 seen from the quotation marks, employed Mr. HORNELL'S own words. Elsewhere his 

 account has been used as the basis of the statements, or as the text which has called 

 forth remarks or upon which an argument has been founded. From the knowledge 

 which I gained of the locality and of the conditions of life during my visits to the 

 pearl banks in 1902, on the " Lady Havelock " and the " Rangasami Puravi," I find it 

 easy to follow and to realise the changes in the oyster beds; arid I have no hesitation, 

 in the light of the fresh evidence, in pressing my former recommendations that the 

 " paars " be cleaned, thinned and improved by dredging and cultching, and that 

 deficiencies in spat deposit be made good on all possible occasions by the trans- 

 plantation of young oysters. 



* 



THE PREPARATORY INSPECTION OF THE NORTHERN PEARL 



BANKS. 



From the 26th January, 1904, on which date Mr. HORNELL was appointed 

 Inspector of Pearl Banks in addition to his duties as Marine Biologist, until the 18th 

 of the following month, his time was largely occupied with the multifarious prepara- 

 tions necessary before sailing for the pearl banks, Boats had to be repaired and 

 painted, old stores overhauled and new ones procured, and at the same time a general 

 supervision given to the fitting up of the steamer " Ready," which was to serve as an 

 oyster-dredger. However, by February 18th, the last stores were on board, inclusive 

 of over G'JOO gallons of fresh water for the 70 men (divers, munducks, boatmen, &c.) 



