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



the neighbourhood of the pearl banks is such, that a short 

 distance westward of 10 fathoms would take them into depths 

 beyond the capacity of even the diver with diving dress, as 

 the edge of the bank of soundings is precipitous. 



It has often been suggested also that better results would 

 be obtained on the pearl banks by the employment of divers 

 with diving dress, both at inspections of banks and at 

 fisheries ; but as a matter of fact, I have had experience of 

 the diver with diving dress in both these cases. 



Some years ago a European diver was employed regularly 

 at inspections of the banks, and in April, 1884, I had four 

 European divers, along with native divers, employed in the 

 fishing of a bank of oysters off Chilaw, when I found the 

 native divers brought up in a day's work as many oysters per 

 diver as the European divers. 



At inspections of the banks it is necessary to get over the 

 ground quickly, as there are very large areas to be examined, 

 and the native diver, who can be taken about in a handy 

 rowing boat, making a dive when wanted, during which he 

 goes over a space of about 20 square yards and brings up a 

 sample of what is on the bottom, over that area, all in about 

 one minute, is just the man required. I have never known 

 any of the native divers employed at inspections to give a 

 false report of the state of the bottom, and I have found that 

 I could form a far better idea of the state of a bank from 

 their reports than I could from that of the European diver, 

 who could not move about as quickly as the native. 



In this connection I will relate an amusing incident that 

 occurred during the fishery off Chilaw in April, 1884. One 

 morning the European divers reported to me that there were 

 no oysters where the vessel was anchored, and asked for it to 

 be moved to another part of the bank. I knew from the 

 native diver's report that the vessel was anchored on the best 

 part of the bank, so I called up four native boats and told 

 the tindals to work close round the ships, which they did, 

 and their native divers sent up oysters, 50 to a dive. On 

 seeing this the European divers began work again and found 



