The Tinnevelly Pearl Banks. 425 



water, and in places so shallow that they must be exposed for 

 two or three hours daily to the sun and other atmospheric in- 

 fluences. Captain Phipps, the superintendent of the Tinnevelly 

 pearl banks, has come to the same conclusions ; and, convinced 

 that artificial nurseries for the young oysters are the only means 

 by which remunerative fisheries can be ensured, he has pro- 

 posed the following plan, which has been adopted : — 



The harbour of Tuticorin is formed by two long islands, 

 and between them and the mainland there is a bank about three 

 miles long by a quarter of a mile broad, with a depth of from 

 three to seven feet, entirely free both from surf, currents, and 

 influxes of fresh water. Captain Phipps proposes that this 

 bank should be walled round with loose coral until it is formed 

 into a basin, the edges rising three feet above high water 

 mark. Over the bed of the shallow basin thus enclosed, live 

 coral will be regularly spread, so as in a few years to form a 

 solid mass, serving the purpose of culch, and the basin will be 

 divided into three parts, one for the old oysters, and the other 

 two for the young ones that may be in process of rearing. 

 After the division of the basin set apart for breeding has been 

 stocked, it will be carefully watched, and when the spawning 

 has taken place and the young oysters are well formed, they 

 will be removed from the old oysters and rocks to which they 

 are attached, and placed in one of the separate parts of the 

 basin, and the same plan will be follovred each succeeding year. 

 On reaching a sufficient age, they will again be removed to 

 one of the pearl banks in the open sea. The last operation is 

 necessary, because it would be impossible to enclose an arti- 

 ficial space which would hold as many grown oysters as are 

 required for a remunerative fishery, and because it is believed 

 that the quality of the pearl depends on the depth and clear- 

 ness of the sea in which it has been formed. 



A single oyster, five or six years old, often contains no less 

 than 12,000,000 eggs, and in the fishery of 1861 the total 

 number taken only amounted to 15,874,500, so that the number 

 of young ones annually obtained from the nursery will be 

 abundantly sufficient to stock banks for each year's fishery. 

 Care will of course be taken that only such banks are selected 

 for stocking as have the rocks which compose them raised well 

 clear of the surrounding sand. 



By this system, adapted as it is from those of the English 

 and French edible oyster fisheries, several advantages will be 

 secured, and all the dangers to which the pearl oysters are 

 now exposed will be avoided. The young growing molluscs, 

 safe on their carefully watched laying at Tuticorin, will be 

 secured from the choking sands of their natural banks, as well 

 as from their alleged enemy, the soorum, the effects of which 



