PKEFACE. 



The accompanying report upon the present condition and future prospects of the 

 Pearl Banks off the Coast of Madura and Tinnevelly is the outcome of a request for 

 the loan of my services made by the Government of Madras to that of Ceylon in the 

 Spring of 1904. 



I appreciate most highly the honour thus done me and I have endeavoured to 

 the utmost of my ability to discharge satisfactorily the duty laid upon me. The 

 working up of the material, however, proved unexpectedly tedious and arduous ; the 

 volume of the material to be digested was very much greater than I had anticipated ; 

 wide historical enquiries had to be instituted and all this to be carried on concurrently 

 with the exacting duties of my first year in office as Inspector of Pearl Banks and 

 Marine Biologist to the Government of Ceylon. Critics will therefore, I trust, deal 

 gently with the many shortcomings which I am conscious mar the present report ; 

 they will kindly bear in mind that it has been built up largely in fragments of time 

 snatched from an all too scanty leisure. I should like indeed to devote further study 

 to the enquiry, but under present circumstances, 1 see no prospect of the necessary 

 time-opportunity. I reluctantly decide that it is better to send in the report as it 

 stands than to postpone its issue indefinitely. 



Possibly I have striven to do more than was expected from me, but having put 

 my hand to the work I could not refrain from the attempt to review the position in all 

 its bearings. However many shortcomings pertain to this effort I have cleared some 

 stumbling blocks from the way and have indicated the lines on which success may be 

 attained eventually by the workers who will follow me. 



My aim has been to sift the whole of the evidence available, historical, zoological 

 and physiographical ; to present the conclusions in a simple and succinct form and to 

 formulate remedial measures on a practical and business-like basis. 



It has not been found necessary to treat herein of the anatomy and habits of the 

 pearl oyster as such are dealt with fully by Professor Herdman and myself in the 

 " Beport on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar," recently published 

 by the Boyal Society. 



My grateful acknowledgements are made to my predecessors in this investigation ; 

 my work has been immensely facilitated by the extensive data recorded and ably 

 presented in Mr. H. Sullivan Thomas' " Beport on Pearl Fisheries " published by the 

 Madras Government in 1884, and in the valuable reports made from time to time by 

 Dr. E. Thurston in the Bulletins of the Madras Museum. It has always appeared to 

 me a thousand pities that Dr. Thurston's abilities have not been utilized to a much 

 greater extent than they have been in Pearl Fishery investigation, seeing how highly 

 qualified he has proved himself for the task. 



I am also pleased to have this opportunity to thank Captain Carlyon, the Port 

 officer of Tuticorin and Superintendent of Pearl Banks, and Don Gabriel de Cruz 

 Lazarus Motha Yas, the Jati Talaivan of the Parawas, for their courtesy and help 

 during the actual work of inspection in May 1904. The Jati Talaivan, indeed, spared 

 no pains to put me in possession of all the historical and traditional information 

 of which he is the depositary owing to the close connection which has existed for 

 centuries between his forefathers and the Pearl Fishery organization ; such has 

 been of great value to me. 



The Peart, Banks, Ceylon, 



28th March 1905. JAMES HORNELL. 



