176 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVI. 



Ceylon — the pearl banks on the Indian coast having now 

 almost ceased to be remunerative. 



At the Conference Meeting of the Colonial and Indian 

 Exhibition in 1886 Sir James Longden (formerly Governor 

 of the Island) remarked that the pearl fishery of Ceylon 

 was "one of the most ancient — perhaps the most ancient 

 industry of the world ; that it was carried on to-day as it had 

 been for two thousand to three thousand years ; and that it 

 owed little or nothing to modern civilization in the manner 

 of getting from the depths of the sea that wonderful beauti- 

 ful product of Nature, the pearl."* 



The Ceylon fishery, besides being entirely carried on by 

 unprotected native divers, is further distinguished from 

 those which we have just been considering in being the only 

 fishery in the Tropics where pearls alone are sought for, 

 irrespective of the shells, the nacreous lining of the valves 

 of the Gulf of Mannar oyster (M, fucata) being of little or 

 no commercial value.f 



It will not be necessary for me to enter into details here 

 regarding the methods employed in the conduct of the 

 Ceylon fishery. They have already been fully described by 

 Capt. Steuart, Sir Emerson Tennent, Mr. Vane, Mr. Edgar 

 Thurston, and, quite recently, by Sir William Twynam in 

 his very complete and elaborate report just published.^ 

 Let it suffice to say that the industry is now a Government 

 monopoly, carried on under the inspection and control of 

 specially appointed officers, the system which was formerly 

 in vogue of renting the pearl banks having been entirely 

 discontinued since the year 1837. 



* Proc. Royal Colonial Institute, 1886. 



f The mother-of-pearl oyster (M. margaritifera) also occurs, though very 

 rarely, in the Gulf of Mannar. See Thurston, " Pearl and Ohank Fisheries 

 of the Gulf of Mannar," 1894. 



% (1) Tennent, "Nat. Hist, of Ceylon," p. 373; (2) Capt. Steuart," Account 

 of the Pearl Fisheries," 1843 ; (3) Vane, "Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon," R.A.S. 

 Journal, vol. X., 1887 ; (4) Thurston, " Pearl and Chank Fisheries of the 

 Gulf of Mannar," 1894 ; (5) Twynam, "Report on Ceylon Pearl Fisheries," 

 1900. See also the many valuable " Inspection Reports " by Capt. Donnan, 

 Inspector of the Pearl Banks, for the last thirty-seven years. 



