THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Feb. 1, 1865. 



298 THE TINXEVELLY PEARL-BANKS. 



of luxury in the strictest meaning of the word ; the seas in which they 

 grow cannot well become private property ; and, if a profit can be 

 derived from their sale, it is certainly a branch of revenue which can 

 give just cause of complaint to no man, while it benefits the com- 

 munity at large. In India, too, the Government are possessed of advan- 

 tages which enables them to get the work of superintendence and 

 management done with far greater economy and efficiency than could 

 be secured by any private individual or company. So high an authority 

 as Mr. McCulloch has taken an opposite view, for he asserted that the 

 Government monopoly ought to be abolished, because the expense of 

 guarding and managing the banks exceeds the sum for which the fishery 

 is let, and that anyone who likes should be allowed to fish on paying a 

 moderate licence duty. The last edition of the ' Commercial Dictionary ' 

 was published in 1860, and during the two following years the Tinne- 

 velly pearl fishery yielded a large net revenue to the Government, 

 which is a sufficient answer to Mr. McCulloch's argument. It is true 

 that there has since been disappointment ; but the way to secure regular 

 annual returns is by adopting a carefully-considered scientific system of 

 conservancy, and not by throwing the banks open to the depredations of 

 all comers. 



The fishery of 1861 commenced on March 7th, and the sale of the 

 Government share of oysters was conducted by public auction, which 

 began at Rs. 15, and gradually rose to Rs. 40 per l v 000. As many as 

 15,874,500 shells were sold, realizing upwards of 20,000Z., as the net 

 result to Government, exclusive of all expenses and of the shares 

 allowed to the divers. The annual expense of the guard boats for pro- 

 tecting the banks is only 500Z. 



In 1862 the results of the fishery were also satisfactory ; but in 1863 

 the banks were found to be in a most unpromising state, and no fishery 

 was attempted. Out of seventy-two banks that were examined, only 

 four contained oysters free from soorum, eleven had young oysters mixed 

 with soorum, and fifty-seven were blank. It is this unexpected failure 

 of properly-grown shells which has given rise to Captain Phipps' experi- 

 mental culture now in course of trial, and to a very careful considera- 

 tion of the conditions most likely to secure a good annual fishery which 

 shall not be liable to this periodical sterility. 



The pearl-banks are about nine miles from the shore, and eight to 

 ten fathoms from the surface, being scattered over an area seventy miles 

 in length. They are exposed to ocean currents, which, by washing sand 

 into the interstices of the rocks, often destroy the young oysters over a 

 considerable area ; the dead fish, when not removed, soon contaminate 

 their neighbours ; and, in addition to these sources of evil, the soorum 

 shells, a species of Modiola, like a mussel with a swollen face, which 

 often grow amongst the pearl oysters, exercise a pernicious influence, 

 either by dying and spreading death around them, or by accumulating 

 sand. It is obviously quite impossible to watch these banks efficiently 



