138 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
“Hamlet” minus the Prince of Denmark. In short, the mightier the perfume the 
more potent the supposed fertilising properties. 
At the instance of Mr. Thomas Broadhurst, the present representative of the 
firm, who takes a warm interest in all matters connected with the actual or potential 
commercial capabilities of these islands, the author was deputed by the Western 
Australian Government, in his capacity of Commissioner of Fisheries, to examine and 
report upon their eligibility for the establishment thereon of oyster, mother-of-pearl shell, 
and other profitable fisheries. The investigations made with this special object led to 
the discovery of a very unexpected constitution of the marine fauna of these islands, 
and at the same time permitted the writer to make a favourable report to the 
Government in directions which had not been anticipated. The ordinary Australian 
Rock Oyster, Ostrwa glomerata, occurs in such abundance and under such conditions 
on several of the islands, that it could no doubt be made a subject of remune- 
rative cultivation. The smaller West Australian variety of mother-of-pearl shell, 
identical with the Meleagrina imbricata of Reeve, was found growing very sparingly 
among the reefs, and although it could no doubt be abundantly propagated there by 
recourse to scientific methods, it did not seem worthy of attention in comparison 
with the unexpectedly favourable conditions which the author found to obtain at 
the Abrolhos for the introduction and acclimatisation of the larger and far more 
valuable tropical species, Meleagrina margaritifera. 
A separate Chapter being devoted later on to fuller details concerning the 
various species of Australian mother-of-pearl shell, it will suffice here to remark 
that the large commercial species, M/. margaritifera, is an essentially tropical type, 
not found growing indigenously below the parallel of 234° S. The smaller shell, 
M. imbricata, while a native of the tropics, attains to its most prolific and vigorous 
growth several degrees south of the Tropic of Capricorn, being most abundant in 
Shark’s Bay, on the Western Australian coast, and in Wide Bay and Moreton Bay, 
on the Eastern or Queensland sea-board. By direct experiment the writer had 
proved, a short while previously, that the larger tropical species might be artificially 
transported to, and would thrive and propagate in, the extra-tropical waters of 
Shark’s Bay; and his investigations of the Abrolhos reefs led him to anticipate that 
in their vicinity this valuable tropical species would meet with even more favour- 
able growth conditions. The specially propitious conditions noted were intimately 
associated with the correlated marine fauna and environments of the respective 
districts. In Shark’s Bay, about 25° 55” S., where the shell was experimentally 
