THE PEARL OYSTER OF CEYLON. 173 



fished, in portions which divers had not worked. How large this quan- 

 tity, so fortunately reserved, must have been, can be imagined, when it 

 afforded a revenue the following year of upwards of £1,900. 



I have no doubt in my own mind, that the myriads of young oysters now 

 found in the Cheval Paar, were formed from the spawn of these reserved 

 oysters. He would, indeed, be a bold naturalist, who, in order to establish 

 a favourite theory, would maintain that the spawn floating about the sea 

 and derived from banks far off, found a resting place last year on the 

 Cheval Paar, when he finds, contrary to former observations, that the 

 majority of the oldoj'sters were covered this year with young ones of from 

 four to twelve months' growth, and that few of the old oysters examined con- 

 tained eggs in their ovaries or genital glands. At the end of the fishery of 

 1858, the oysters on all the banks were in a most favourable condition for the 

 multiplication of species and replenishing the seas. The ovaries of all the 

 thousands of oysters examined by me were full of spawn, or spermatozoa. 



Owing to the reappearance of cholera this year also, a very large quan- 

 tity of matured oysters, full of eggs, were left unfished in the Modregam 

 Bank, and it is to be hoped that no unforeseen or untoward circumstance 

 will prevent the spawn of these oysters being deposited in or near the 

 already known banks. Whether the divers detect this expected new brood 

 or not, the Ceylon Government may feel assured that the product of the 

 spawn will not be very far off the present Modregam ; at all events, it will 

 be a very satisfactory result if these oysters, too, after performing their 

 natural functions, yield next year a revenue of £20,000. Had cholera not 

 prevailed, this amount would probably have been added to the already col- 

 lected revenue ; but then the millions of young oysters which the old ones 

 are likely to have produced would have been lost. Now, there is a very 

 fair prospect of not only securing the value of the old oysters, but a new 

 generation of the species for future years, when this colony may be more 

 in want of money than at present. 



The future prospects of the Pearl Oyster Banks are very brilliant indeed, 

 although the fisheries (after the probable one of next year) are not likely 

 to be resumed before the year 1864. It does not appear on record that 

 such numerous and extensive deposits of young oysters were ever known 

 to exist, in almost one continuous layer, as the two intelligent and skilful 

 English divers have discovered this year on the banks of Arripo. There 

 were few oysters fished this year on the Cheval Paar that had not from ten 

 to twenty or more young oysters attached to their upper shells. On one 

 pinna (fan shell) I counted as many as sixty, and on one piece of coral, 

 about two feet in circumference, there were at least 300 one-year old 

 oysters. At the lowest calculation, the quantity of young oysters now on 

 the Cheval and Modregam Banks, according to the reports made by the 

 divers, cannot be less than fifty times as many as were fished during the 

 last three fisheries. If, then, even half this number arrive at maturity, and 

 reach the age of six or seven years, the revenue that will be derived from 

 this source (if present prices are maintained) will be more than sufficient to 



