72 CLASS CONCHIFERA. 



otlier active parts of the fishery ; they merely resort 

 hither for the purpose of supplying the markets, 



Ahout the end of Octoher, in the year preceding a 

 pearl-fishery, when a short interval of fine weather pre- 

 vails, an examination of the banks takes place. A 

 certain number of boats, under an English superin- 

 tendent, repair in a body to each bank, and having, by 

 frequent diving, ascertained its situation, they lake from 

 one to two thousand oysters as a specimen. The shells 

 are opened, and if the pearls collected from a thousand 

 oysters be worth three pounds sterling, a good fishery 

 may be expected. The " banks," or beds of oysters, are 

 scattered over a space in the Gulf of Manaar, extending 

 thirty miles from north to south, and twenty-four from 

 east to west. There are fourteen beds (not all, however, 

 pioductive), of which the largest is ten miles long, and 

 two broad. The depth of water is from three to fifteen 

 fathoms. 



The pearl-oysters in these banks are all of one species, 

 and of the same form: in shape not very unlike our 

 common English oyster, but considerably larger, being 

 from eight to ten inches in circumference. The body of 

 the animal is white, ilcshy, and glutinous : the inside of 

 the shell (the real " mother of-pearl,") is even brighter 

 and more beautiful than the pearl itself: the outside 

 smooth and dark-coloured. The pearls are most com- 

 monly contained in the thickest and most tleshy part of 

 the oyster. A single oyster will frequently contain 

 several pearls, and one is on record, as having produced 

 one hundred and fifty. 



k'!ometiraes the English government of Ceylon fishes 

 the banks entirely at its own risk ; sometimes, the boats 

 are let to many speculators : but, most frequently, the 



