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



adjoiningpartsof the reef by the south-west monsoon sea, and 

 the cage was found broken up and the few oysters left in it 

 were dead. And thus ended my experiments in artificial 

 cultivation. I subsequently thought of making a preserve 

 on some part of the eastern shore of the island of Karai- 

 tivu, but had to give up that idea, as I found on searching 

 for a suitable spot that it was all muddy bottom, which 

 would have been fatal to young oysters. There appears to 

 be no sheltered spot on the west coast of Ceylon suitable for 

 pearl oyster cultivation. Some of the bays in Trincomalee 

 harbour might prove suitable, and if so, they would be, 

 I believe, the only places likely to be found for this experi- 

 ment in Ceylon. The late Dr. Kelaart succeeded in taking 

 pearl oysters from Sillavaturai in chatties round to Trinco- 

 malee, and in keeping them alive for some time after. 



In connection with this subject the question arises whether 

 or not, in the event of pearl oysters being successfully reared 

 in shallow water, it would be necessary to lay them out in 

 their natural beds to produce pearl. During a visit I made 

 in 1867 to the edible oyster preserves on Hayling Island, 

 near Portsmouth, I was informed that it was necessary, 

 when the young oysters had attained an age of one year or 

 more in the preserves, to lay them out on their natural beds 

 to fatten, and this might be found necessary also in the case 

 of pearl oysters for the purpose of producing pearls. The 

 native headmen who were employed at fisheries and inspec- 

 tion of the pearl banks years ago declared that oysters found 

 in shallow water never contained pearls, and that only those 

 found in deep water were of any value. I have not had an 

 opportunity of testing this theory ; but if it is correct, then 

 any scheme of pearl oyster culture attempted hereafter would 

 have to contend with the risk of young oysters, after trans- 

 ference to their natural beds, being at the mercy of their 

 enemies almost as much as they are now ; and in that case, 

 Trincomalee would be too far away from the beds in the 

 Gulf of Mannar, as the cost of transference of the large 

 number of young oysters required to produce a fishery would 



