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



immemorial there have been fisheries of pearls and pearl shell all 

 round the Indian Ocean, on the African, Asiatic, and Austral coasts ; 

 from Mozambique to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, to Karachi, the 

 Gulf of Mannar ; the Tinnevelly and Ceylon coasts ; the Burmah coast 

 at Bahrein ; the Saigon, Philippines', and Bornean, as well as Chinese 

 coasts, and up some of the Chinese rivers ; and also round one-half of 

 Australia. Our Ceylon fisheries are among the oldest and most famous, 

 seeing that a European visitor found 8,000 boats at work about the 

 middle of the 14th century. But, then, in the Book of Job, some 3,500 

 years ago, there was mention made of both " coral and pearls." In 

 Europe pearls of value have been got from the mussels fished in our 

 Scottish rivers ; the pearls in the Scottish Crown, now forming the 

 regalia of Great Britain, were all got in the Tay, and the pearls gathered 

 there in three years (1761-1764) were valued at £10,000. A fine pearl 

 similarly found in the Conway is said to be in the Royal Crown of 

 England. Now, remembering that the Scottish mussel is allied to the 

 so-called Ceylon pearl oyster, it will be seen that pearls can be culti- 

 vated in quiet river estuaries as well as in the deep water on Ceylon 

 banks, and in the case of Australia inside the barrier reefs. I have taken 

 a special interest in this question of pearl oysters and their culture 

 ever since I visited Western Australia in 1875. Sir Wm. Robinson 

 was Governor there, and he kindly put all available information about 

 the local pearl shell and oyster fishing, then in their infancy, at my 

 disposal. I met the gentleman who first discovered that the blisters 

 on the inside of the large pearl shells contained fine pearls, of a golden 

 yellow or white colour, some of which were valued up to £1,500 each ; 

 while one cluster, known as the " Southern Cross," was valued up to 

 £10,000. Captain Donnan may be surprised to learn that in those 

 early days so plentiful were the oysters within the barrier reef on the 

 west and north-west coast of Australia, that the pearlers simply waded 

 in and pulled up from the reefs in shallow water an ample supply of 

 large oysters, some of them with very fine pearls. This fact is also 

 mentioned by Saville-Kent ; but the case is very different now, 

 all the fishing being in deep water — only it seems to show that such 

 oysters flourish and develop pearls even in comparatively shallow 

 water. 



The readiness with which pearl oysters adhere by their byssus is 

 shown by some 40 being found on a single Pinna or Razor shell, and 

 by Mr. Saville-Kent's experience of their growing above a mangrove 

 swamp off N.-W. Australia. There is great encouragement, too, for 

 culture when we know that the happy little family for which each 

 oyster prepares a dainty home numbers, on an average, as many as 

 12 million eggs, and this when the parent is but one year old. An 

 English dramatist has told us that " an oyster may be crossed in love," 

 but there is ample margin to go upon ; and our little meleagnna is 

 most enterprising and able both to climb a wall and take a walk, 

 justifying that other poet of " the Walrus and the Carpenter, 5 ' when 



