KNOWLICDGE. 



November, 1912. 



The same argument applies to Mr. S.i\ illi-Kent's 

 claim that hef^ot this species to hrceil at Sliaik's Hay. 

 Asa result of his success in acclimatising the shell 

 at Shark's Hay. Mr. Kent proposed to introduce it 

 into Houtman's .\hrolhos : but I am not aware that 

 this was ever tried. Why people should want to try 

 to introduce this species into extra-tropical localities, 

 for purposes of cultivation, when there are thousands 

 of square miles of suitable ground for this enterprise 

 in the natural haunts of the oyster, I cannot 

 conceive. 



(2) Thk Pilot Cui/riVATUJX Comi-anv's 



Enti:ki'kisi-: in Torres Straits. 



In 1891, the Queensland Legislature passed an 

 Act permitting the taking of undersized mother-of- 

 pearl oysters : that is to saj-, examples of less than 

 five inches, nacre measurement, for cultivation 

 purposes (this privilege has since been cancelled). 

 The Pilot Cultivation Company was formed b\- some 

 of the leading [learling-Heet owners, Mr. James 

 Clark being the moving spirit. An area about two 

 miles long, and varying in width from half a mile to 

 a mile, in the passage between Prince of Wales 

 Island and Friday Island, was leased to the 

 Company. This passage was well known to Mr. 

 Clark, who had former!)- had a station there ; so that, 

 so far as the experience of a practical man is a 

 guarantee, it may be assumed that it was a suitable 

 place for this enterprise. It had formerly carried 

 rich deposits of shell, which, however, had been 

 cleared off. 



The following account of the enterprise is in great 

 part pieced together froin what was told me when I 

 visited Torres Straits in 1900, and from the evidence 

 given before the several commissions on the pearling 

 industrj'. It is difficult to get accurate information, 

 or exact data ; indeed, it seems probable that there 

 was some intentional reticence on the part of those 

 witnesses who were personally interested in the 

 venture. 



The first attempts at transplanting oysters were 

 made with a sailing vessel, and were not successful, 

 owing to heavy losses, attributed to insufficient circu- 

 lation of water in the well in which the shells were 

 carried : but with the substitution of steam for sailing 

 power this difficulty was overcome. The ONsters 

 were carried on tra\s in the hold, and the water was 

 kept in circulation by a powerful pump. The loss 

 in transit was estimated to be not more than two and 

 a half per cent., except where delays occurred or the 

 shells were overcrowded on the trays. 



I have been unable to obtain exact dates and 

 figures; but it appears that the laying down of shell 

 began in earnest in May, 1894, and from that date 

 something between one hundred thousand and one 

 hundred and fifty thousand young shells, from the 

 area known as the Old Grounds, collected by the 

 divers in the ordinary course of their fishing opera- 

 tions, were laid down. Most of tiicm were under 

 five inches in nacre measurement. It appears from 



the evidence of a diver employed in the operations 

 that the transplanted .shells were simply dumped 

 overboard on the leased area, and no care was taken 

 to lay them down in suitable positions. This |>ro- 

 cedure cannot be recommended to future cultivators. 

 The shells so laid down were inspected periodicallv. 

 A lot of dead ones were found, especially among 

 those that had hai)pened to fall on unsuitable 

 ground. The numbers that died ran into many 

 thousands, and it appears that twentv-four cases 

 (about three tons) of dead shell v\ere collected in the 

 course of the experiment. 



In .\ugust and September, 1897, seven weeks were 

 devoted to fishing these oysters, and thirty thousand 

 or thirty-five thousand were taken up: those marketed 

 exceeded six and a half inches nacre measurement 

 (one thousand four hundred to the ton). .•\s in other 

 cultivation experiments, high hopes were raised by 

 the appearance of quantities of what seemed to 

 be young mother-of-pearl oysters, on the leased area; 

 but these proved to be bastard shell. 



A few oysters were left on the ground. I have in 

 my collection one that was taken up in 1900 when 

 I was in Torres Straits. 



The law afforded the Companj- insufficient [)ro- 

 tcction, it being found that it was impossible to 

 convict poachers; the court holding that pearl oysters 

 were ferae naturae, a defect which has, I believe, 

 since been remedied in the criminal code. 



About the begiiming of 1897 the Company intro- 

 duced a biologist, Mr. S. Pace, who had been trained 

 under the late Professor Howes, at the Royal College 

 of Science. Mr. Pace had had no previous experience 

 of pearl or mother-of-pearl oysters. \t first he was 

 engaged in investigations at Goode Island, but subse- 

 quently he took up his quarters on the hulk " Day- 

 spring," a vessel which, beginning as a missionary 

 barquentine, had had a highly chequered career 

 before she was moored in P'riday Island Passage, as 

 a floating biological laboratory. Mr. Pace has never 

 published an account of his work ; but it appears 

 from evidence laid before the Commissions by his 

 employers that such results as he achieved were of 

 academic rather than practical value. 



In a report published in the Thursday Island 

 Government Resident's Report for 1898, ^Ir. Pace 

 proposed the construction of a tank or incubator, 

 perhai)s by damming the ends of a channel, in which 

 hand-fertilized ova were to be carried through the 

 pelagic stage, and caught on collectors. Paper 

 anticipations of this kind are common in connection 

 w ith proposals for the cultivation of mother-of-pearl 

 ovstcrs and edible oysters, but the practical success 

 of such devices has yet to be demonstrated. 



With regard to the cost of the Pilot Cultivation 

 Company's enterprise, it is difficult to get anything 

 like satisfactory figures. It is generally claimed by 

 those who carried through the work that it meant a 

 heavy loss to them, and this may be so, if futile 

 experiments and scientific work carried on for an 

 insufficient period be debited against tlu nturns 



