54 WILD LIFE IN NORTH CANARA. 



must be what I have suggested) because 

 a side blow with the row of sharp, horny 

 t^eth would inflict a fearful wound on 

 an assailant. 



I had often picked up on the beach 

 after a storm the shells of the pearl 

 oyster: beautiful mother-of-pearl, not 

 of the thick, massive kind found in 

 the Persian gulf, but identical I bfelieve 

 with the pearl oysters of Ceylon. 



Wishing to examine the bed from 

 which these shells came, I one day took 

 Byroo and four or five skilful divers in 

 my sailing boat to the head of the bay> 

 to test the contents of the shells. We 

 collected about five hundred shells, which 

 were at once opened and searched ; but 

 beyond a number of tiny seed-pearls and 

 one irregularly shaped pearl, about as 



