264 DR. H. LYSTKR JAMESON ON 



practical culture of the pearl-oyster and on the improvement of 

 the pearl-banks " (50). 



On the formation of the Company Mr. Hornell was transferred 

 to its service as local General Manager, Prof. Herdman being 

 made Scientific Adviser. 



In April 1908 Prof. Herdman, at the reqviest of the Company, 

 paid another short visit to Ceylon, to enquire into the question of 

 the inspection of the banks and other branches of the business. 

 As a result of Prof. Herdman's inquiries, the post of General 

 Manager was abolished, being merged in that of Managing 

 Director, and Mr. Hornell resigned, being succeeded by Mr. T. 

 Southwell, A.R.C.Sc. (Lond.), who since 1907 had been acting as 

 Mr. Hornell's assistant, and previously to that had assisted 

 Prof. Herdman in his laboratory at Liverpool in the preparation 

 of the material sent home for investigation, Mr. Southwell 

 was made Scientific Adviser, a post which he still holds. Pro- 

 fessor Herdman continued to be retained in an advisory capacity. 

 Capt. J. Kerkham was appointed Superintendent of Fisheries*. 



Besides the work of the Company's scientific employees. Dr. A. 

 Willey, in his capacity as Marine Biologist to the Government 

 (a post which he held along with the Directorship of the Ceylon 

 Museum), has published some observations in the Ceylon 

 Administrative reports and in ' Spolia Zeylanica.' 



Particulars of the work done, and of the conclusions arrived at, 

 by these several naturalists will be given in the course of the paper. 

 In considering the incompleteness of the observations, despite 

 the eight and a half years that have been devoted to the study of 

 the Ceylon pearl-banks and the very large sums of money that 

 have been expended, it must, of course, be borne in mind that for 

 the last three or four years the banks are stated to have been 

 practically bare of oysters t, and the prosecution of the investi- 

 gations initiated by Prof. Herdman has thus been seriously 

 hampered. But it is amazing that a Company whose prospects 

 were so largely dependent on scientific work should have failed 

 to set by an adequate stock of properly pi-eserved material for 

 scientific investigations and to establish at a suitable station a 

 reserve of live oysters when the oysters were passing through 

 their hands by the million. Had this been done, the barren 

 years that have now come might have been devoted to the 

 examination and amplification of Prof. Herdman's observations, 



* Since the above was written the operations of the Company have ceased. It was 

 announced in the 'Times' of April 4th, 1912, that the lease had been terminated, 

 a deposit of £10,000 together with the property of the Company being forfeited to 

 the Government. An examination of the causes of the failure of this short-lived 

 Company, which started with a capital of £165,000, has lately been published by the 

 present writer (26 a). 



t Not entirely ; for it was possible to obtain 12,000 oysters in Feb. 1910 for Mr. 

 Southwell's feeding experiment described in Part V. of the Ceylon Marine Biological 

 Reports, p. 213, and no less than 35,000 oysters ranging- from 8 months to 2^ years 

 old were obtained for the experiment described in Part IV. of the same publication, 

 p. 169. Mr. Southwell, in a paper published in May 1911 (42), says : " The only bed 

 which now exists is confined to an inshore area, and the oysters found thereon only 

 rarely contain the pearl-inducing parasite." 



