214 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
The lower of the two illustrations incorporated in Plate XX XVIII. has already 
appeared, but with less clear effect, in the authors book “The Great Barrier 
Reef.” It represents a photographic fac-simile of the outcome of one of various 
tentative experiments made by the writer to induce the production of pearls by 
artificial means. The result obtained is obviously to such an extent encouraging that 
the prosecution of kindred operations on a larger and systematic scale may be com- 
mended to the attention of those who may carry into practice that artificial cultivation 
of the larger tropical Mother-of-Pearl shell which the writer has now demonstrated 
to be distinctly feasible. 
The subjoined tail-piece illustration portrays a little group of fine Western 
Australian Pearls photographed by the writer at Mr. G. S. Streeter’s Pearling Station, 
Roebuck Bay. 
