238 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



Ceylon in nine years (from 1828 to 1837), according to Mr. James Steuart, the Inspector of 

 Pearl Banks, was 227,131, but it has since decreased very considerably. Mr. Hope possessed a 

 pearl measuring two inches in length and four in circumference, and weighing 1,800 grains. This 

 is said to be the largest pearl known. A very fine pearl bouton was sold in London in 1860 for 

 .2,000 : it measured about five-eighths of an inch. Good pearls of two grains weight are common, 

 and fetch about 7s. 6d. each ; pearls weighing five grains are worth 2 each ; pearls of ten grains' 

 weight sell for 7 and 8 apiece. But the best market for pearls is in India itself, where they are 

 more highly esteemed than in Europe, and realise far higher values. 



Sir Emerson Tennent gives the following interesting account of diving for Pearl Oysters on the 

 coast of Ceylon: " On my arrival at Arippo, the pearl-divers, under the orders of their Adapanaar, 

 put to sea, and commenced the examination of the banks. The persons engaged in this calling are 



chiefly Tamils and Moors, who are trained for the 

 service by diving for chanks. The pieces of appa- 

 ratus employed to assist the diver in his operations 

 are exceedingly simple in their character : they con- 

 sist merely of a stone, about thirty pounds' weight 

 (to accelerate the rapidity of his descent), which is 

 suspended over the side of the, boat, with a loop at- 

 tached to it for receiving the foot ; and of a network basket, which ha 

 takes down to the bottom and fills with the Oysters as he collects them. 

 Massoudi, one of the earliest Arabian geographers, describing in the 

 ninth century the habits of the pearl-divers in the Persian Gulf, says 

 that before descending each filled his ears with cotton steeped in oil, and 

 compressed his nostrils by a piece of tortoiseshell. This practice 

 continues there to the present day ; but the diver of Ceylon rejects all 

 such expedients : he inserts his foot in the ' sinking stone ' and inhales 

 a full breath, presses his nostrils with his left hand, raises his body 

 as high as possible above water, to give force to his descent, and, 

 liberating the stone from its fastenings, he sinks below the surface. 

 As soon as he has reached the bottom the stone is drawn up, and 

 the diver, throwing himself on his face, commences with alacrity to 

 fill his basket with Oysters. This, on a concerted signal, is hauled 

 up rapidly to the surface, the diver assisting his own ascent by springing 011 the rope as it rises. ' 

 " Improbable tales have been told of the capacity which these men acquire of remaining for pro- 

 longed periods under water. The divers who attended on this occasion were among the most 

 expert on the coast, yet not one of them was able to complete a full minute below. Captain Steuart, 

 who for many years filled the office of Inspector of the Pearl Banks, assured me that he Lad 

 never known a diver to continue at the bottom longer than eighty-seven seconds, nor to attain 

 a greater depth than thirteen fathoms ; and on ordinary occasions they seldom exceeded fifty-five 

 seconds in nine fathoms' water. 



"The only precaution to which the Ceylon diver devotedly resorts is the mystic ceremony of the 

 shark-charmer, whose exorcism is an indispensable preliminary to every fishery. His power is 

 believed to be hereditary ; nor is it supposed that the value of his incantations is at all dependent 

 upon the religion of the operator, for the present head of the family happens to be a Roman Catholic. 

 At the time of our visit this mysterious functionary was ill and unable to attend ; but he sent an 

 accredited substitute, who assured me that although ha himself was ignorant of the grand and 

 mystic secret, the fact of his presence as a representative of the higher authority would be recognised 

 and respected by the Sharks." (" Ceylon," Vol. II., p. 563.) 



Genus Perna. These shells, like the Aviculce, vary greatly in form, some being very oblique and 

 inequivalved, others nearly equivalved ; they have a row of about nine cartilage pits near the 

 hinge, and are attached by a byssus. Eighteen species are found in tropical seas. 



Genus Pinna. Shell acutely tiiangular, thin, translucent, and brittle, equivalved ; hinge toothless, 

 mantle of animal doubly fringed, foot elongated and grooved. Pinna spins itself a powerful byssus, by 



HAMMER OYSTER 



(Malleus alba]. 



