K\o\vLi:i)Gi-: 



NOVKMBER, 1912. 



immediate practical bcnctit tlian tlic very extensive 

 survey of the marine fauna of Ceylonese waters 

 which forms so larjje a part of the work which has 

 been done. 



\ remarkable point in connection witli this 

 scientific mission was the fact that (except tliat I 

 myself was invited by Professor Herdman to 

 accompany him as assistant), no serious attempt was 

 made, so far as I know, to secure the co-0|ieration, 

 even in a piirelv critical and advisory capacit\', of the 

 several naturalists (foremost amonj^ whom was the 

 late Mr. Sa\ille-Kent) who had already studied the 

 problems connected with pearl oysters and pearls. 

 It is, indeed, implied in a letter from Mr. Saville-Kent 

 published in Tlw Ceylon Observer of December 28th, 

 1900, and in a leading article of the same date, that 

 he was deliberately left out of the councils. 



I think that almost every incident in connection 

 with the Ceylon affair, which might be used for the 

 purpose of discrediting zoological work, could have 

 been avoided if the assistance of specialists had been 

 invoked. 



Turning now to the attitude of the scientific press, 

 I think it is to be regretted that an attempt was 

 made to claim, as due to biological work, certain 

 results that were the result of quite other causes. 

 In Nature for July 18th, 1907, there is a review of 

 Professor Herdman's report* in which it is implied 

 that the phenomenal success of the four fisheries 

 which followed upon his \isit was due to his 

 scientific investigations. On page 271 there is tin- 

 following statement : 



" It is very interesting to find that since Professor Herdnian's 

 expedition there have been fonr successive fat years of pearl 

 fishing — the most profitable, so far as is known, that have 



(^verbeen This should snrely convince the Philistines 



that there is something in biology after all ! " 

 and on page 272, with reference to some observations 

 of Professor Herdman's as to the interrelation of 

 biological phenomena : 



" If this wise saying were as widely accepted as it is cer- 

 tainly true, biological science would find more generous public 

 support, and we should hear no more of impatient criticisms 

 of scientific investigations which do not yield an increase of 

 rupees sn rapidly as Professor Herdman's study of the 

 Ceylonese Oyster Beds has done." 



I am sure that Professor Herdman would he the 

 first to disclaim this ; these fisheries, like previous 

 ones, were the result of natural deposits of o\sters, 

 w^hich matured, were discovered in the course of 

 inspection, and were fished when ripe. It is par- 

 ticularly regrettable, in \ie\\ of the hcav\- losses 

 which have been incurred by the investing public 

 through the failure of a company which hoped to 

 achieve great results through the aid of science, that 

 an erroneous idea of this kind should have been 

 circulated by a paper of the standing of Nature. 

 The other extreme has been reached by the general 

 public, as inst.mced in the newsi)aper reports of the 

 meetings of the Company, where the failure of the 

 operations is attributed to the bankruptcy of science, 

 a charge as untrue as it is unjust. 



■ " Report to the Government of Ceylon 

 London : Published bv 



ACSTKAMA. — 111 Mk. SaVIII.C-KkNT'S MaKI.V 

 WoKK. 



The first naturalist to make a serious study of the 

 Australian mother-of-pearl oyster ( M. maxima), the 

 most valuable of all kinds, was the late Mr. Saville- 

 Kent. Mr. Kent demonstrated the feasibilit\- of 

 transj)lanting this species from the fishing grounds, 

 and of successful!}' l.i\ing it flown in shallow inshore 

 waters. 



His results in actual cultivation are vitiated by the 

 fact that he mistook the " bastard shells'" (.1/. vulf^aris 

 and .1/. su^illata) (see Figures 45.5 and 454) which 

 can be collected in enormous quantities on suitable 

 catchment in tropical .\ustralia, for the young of 

 M. maxima (see Figure 457). This mistake has 

 been made by almost all in\cstigators of this species. 

 The \oung shells figured b\- iiim in his works, "The 

 Creat Barrier Reef" and "The Naturalist in 

 .Australia," are certainly " bastaid shells" and not 

 the young of M. maxima. 



Mr. Saville-Kent urged the establishment of culti- 

 \ati()n on the foreshore, inidersized shell beingbrought 

 m from the grounds and laid down to grow and 

 reproduce. He considered such a stock would breed 

 and multiply ; but I have always held that the man 

 who lays down breeding stock, while no doubt a 

 public benefactor, reaps a very small fragment of the 

 harvest himself, the free-swimming young being 

 scattered far and wide before they settle. 



In 1S94. when the pioneer shellers who worked 

 the industry from " stations " or homesteads 

 scattered about on the various islands were giving 

 place to highly organised fleets, owned by companies 

 in Sydne\- and Brisbane, some of the shellers them- 

 selves tried to induce the Oueensland Go\ernment 

 to make the bringing in and laying down of small 

 shell compulsory, with a view to founding a 

 permanent white men's industry ; but w ithout results. 



Mr. Saville-Kent made soine experiments in 

 Western .\ustralia in transplanting shell, and he 

 demonstrated that this sjjecies could be kept alive 

 so far awav from its natural haimts as Shark's Bav. 

 He claims to have bred young oysters from stock he 

 laid down in a mangrove swatnp in Roebuck Bay, 

 and figures in his " Naturalist in .\ustralia " the 

 adidt shell, with the supposed young attached: but 

 here again the " \oung " is really another species, 

 .17. sugillata or .17. carcluirianum. and the assump- 

 tion that reproduction hail taken jjlace was therefore 

 unfounded. In fact, it would seem as if Mr. Kent's 

 oysters had [)rovided the onl\- suitable catchment 

 for some of the larvae of the bastard shell, that 

 happened to pass that wav. It would have been 

 strange if the spat produced by these few oysters in 

 this mangrove swamj). through which the tide 

 regularlv ebbs and fiows, could have found their 

 way back to their parents, after drifting about for 

 days, or perhaps weeks, at the mercy of the tide. I 

 am surprised that biologists and practical shellers 

 have so often based their hopes on this assumption. 



on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of Manaar." 

 Koyal Society, 1903-6. 



