148 PEARL FISHERY. 



The singular looking rocks that are seen rising out of the water beyond 

 the promontory, looking through the arch, are the celebrated "Needles,"' 

 a name which they derive from one of their number rising 1 20 feet above 

 low water mark, much like a needle in shape; that, however, has long 

 since disappeared (Worsley says this happened in 1764). 



Scratchell's Bay, and all the neighbouring cliffs, are frequented by 

 vast masses of sea fowls, which the country people are in the habit of 

 catching by the hazardous method (practiced also at Shetland and the 

 Feroe islands) of being swung over the brow of the rock by a rope made 

 fast in the earth above ! Scratchell's Bay is often visited by the tourist, 

 and the most magnificent view of it is obtained by descending a very 

 steep grassy slope of one of the cliffs in the neighbourhood ; but this 

 should never be attempted without a guide. Nothing can be more 

 interesting, particularly to those who are fond of aquatic excursions, than 

 to sail between the cliffs and the needles. The wonderfully coloured 

 cliffs of Alum Bay, the lofty and towering chalk precipices of Scratchell's 

 Bay, of the most dazzling whiteness, and the most elegant forms ; the 

 magnitude and singularity of the spiry insulated masses, which seem at 

 every instant to be shifting their situations, and give a mazy perplexity 

 to the place; the screaming noise of the aquatic birds; the agitation of the 

 sea, and the rapidity of the tide, occasioning not unfrequently a slight 

 degree of danger; all these circumstances combine to raise in the mind 

 unusual emotion, and to give to the scene a character highly singular 

 and even romantic. 



PEARL FISHERY. 



The fullest as well as the most intelligent account of the pearl fishery of 

 Ceylon appears in " Memoires relatifs d 1'expedition, Anglaise de 1'Inde 

 en Egypte, par le Compte de Noe"," from whose highly interesting work 

 we copy our statement. The pearl oyster, like the common one, lies in 

 banks at greater or less depths of the sea. These banks occur on the 

 western side of the island of Ceylon, about 15 miles from the sea, viz: 

 Aripo, Chilow, and Coudatchy, where the average depth is about 12 

 fathoms ; and here the greatest of all pearl fisheries has been carried on 

 for many centuries. Since the occupation of the island by the British, 

 our government has continued to sell by auction the privilege of fishing 

 for them ; these sales are only made for one season. The season always 

 begins in April, because in those latitudes the sea is then in its calmest 

 state, and it is generally continued until the middle or end of May. It 



