HORNELL— ANATOMY OF PLACUNA 49 



The former fishery near Bombay was to furnish shells for the purpose of 

 window-glazing ; so also is the collection that goes on in the Dutch Indies, Borneo, 

 and the Philippines. 



It would be interesting to discover the origin of this utilisation of Placuna shells ; 

 it is scarcely likely to have originated independently at such widely-separated localities 

 as China and Western India. I am inclined to credit its origin to the Chinese, and its 

 dissemination to the Portuguese, who in the height of their power linked up East and 

 West as Britain does to-day. At their great trading centre of Macao, close to Canton, 

 they would early become familiar with the Chinese use of Placuna shells, and their 

 officials would thence carry this knowledge to the scores of stations dotted along the 

 coast-line of the Indies. 



In certain localities Placuna placenta produces quantities of minute pearls, but 

 as these suffer from the four vital defects of small size, poor lustre, irregular shape and 

 lack of the great hardness characteristic of gem pearls, their value is low, and the 

 uses to which they are put are such as will lose importance when fanciful medical 

 nostrums and old superstitions give way before the advance of iconoclastic Western 

 ideas. 



^ To meet this curious demand there are at least four localities where beds of 

 Placuna placenta are fished more or less intermittently and irregularly for the sake of 

 these seed pearls. They are those of Sind (Western India), Tampalakam Bay in 

 Ceylon, Labuk Bay in North Borneo, and the Dutch Indies. 



The fishery in Sind is of comparatively recent origin. It was discovered by the 

 Mirs about 1836. Since the British Government took possession of Sind, the fishing of 

 the banks has been leased by Government periodically for very variable amounts, 

 ranging from the comparatively high figure of Rs. 6,205 in 1849 to as low as 

 Rs. 617 per annum for a period of three years in 1904, a gradual diminution of 

 revenue due without doubt to over-fishing and the financial impossibility of maintaining 

 a supervising establishment adequate to enforce a proper regard for cultural safeguards. 



The industry in Ceylon has run a parallel course ; it has a similar tale of gradually 

 diminishing prosperity, due to over-fishing and poaching. As on the Sind coast, the 

 Ceylon Placuna fishery is the property of Government, and the leasing-out system is 

 also the one adopted. Under the circumstances which prevail at Tampalakam, and the 

 comparative pettiness of the industry, this would seem to be the only practical method. 

 What is wanted is efiicient supervision, but here, as in Sind, it is difficult to reconcile 

 theoretical requirements with financial soundness. 



A detailed account of the Ceylon industry, and of the physical and biological 

 conditions of the Placuna placenta beds, will be found in Part II, pp. 41 to 54, of the 

 Ceylon Marine Biological Reports (1905).' 



Since then an ordinance has been enacted formally vesting the monopoly of the 



^ Also as Ceylon Government Sessional Paper, No. xlvi., 1905. 



