404 Proceedings of the 



The oysters fished during the first half of the fishery were full- 

 sized, and yielded a good price, most of the speculators making 

 handsome profits. Government was encouraged to pursue the 

 fishery ; young oysters were taken up ; many of the pur- 

 chasers, inflated with former gains, purchased readily, and 

 were ruined; and, I believe, to this day these over or prema- 

 turely-fished banks have not been very productive, although 

 twenty years have since elapsed. If the same incautious and 

 unscientific plan were adopted on the oyster banks in Eng- 

 land, similar results would soon be perceived there. Not a 

 " native" would be had in London, nor even a cultivated one seen 

 anywhere. If Government desires to have a steady, and not 

 a precarious revenue, from pearl oyster fisheries, let good laws 

 protect the beds already known, and those that are now form- 

 ing; and let means be adopted to secure their increase and 

 growth. In one year more oysters are consumed in England 

 than were fished on the banks of Arrippo last year ; and this 

 consumption is repeated year after year without exhaustion ; 

 simply because the natural laws having been once found out, 

 they are allowed to operate fairly. It will, indeed, be a very 

 great source of satisfaction to me if any of the natural laws 

 I have described in this Report suggest to Government an 

 improved system of management. My attention has also 

 been directed to the natural history of the Tamblegam oyster, 

 Placuna placenta, I have a few still alive, which were trans- 

 lated in May last. If this oyster can be successfully trans- 

 lated, the whole of Batticaloa lake might be converted into a 

 large ostrearium. The Placuna placenta has no byssus, and 

 can therefore be more readily transported. Their removal from 

 their native beds does not necessarily destroy the internal 

 parts: About one-third of the pearl oyster Meleagrina die from 

 being injured by the force necessarily applied when detaching 

 them from the rocks to which they adhere. I have also lately 

 "doctored" some pearl oysters, according to the plan adopted 

 by the Chinese in the case of the large fresh-water mussel ; 

 but which method, I believe, has never been attempted with 

 the real pearl oyster. Time and further experience are re- 

 quired to ascertain the results of this practice in Ceylon. Dr 

 Gray of the British Museum has, I believe, by the application 



