Chap. XL] PEAEL FISHEEIES. 
373 
A trade more ancient by far than that carried on in 
chanks, and infinitely more renowned, is the fishery of 
pearls on the west coast of Ceylon, bordering the Ohilf 
of Manaar. No scene in Ceylon presents so dreary an 
aspect as the long sweep of desolate shore to which, 
from time immemorial, adventurers have resorted from 
the uttermost ends of the earth in search of the precious 
pearls for which this gulf is renowned. On approaching 
it from sea the only perceptible landmark is a building- 
erected by Lord Ghrildford, as a temporary residence for 
the Governor, and known by the name of the " Doric," 
from the style of its architecture. A few coco-nut 
palms appear next above the low sandy beach, and pre- 
sently are discovered the scattered houses which form 
the villages of Aripo and Condatchy. 
Between these two places, or rather between the 
Kalaar and Arrive river, the shore is raised to a height 
of many feet, by enormous mounds of shells, the accu- 
mulations of ages, the millions of oysters 1 , robbed of 
their pearls, having been year after year flung into 
heaps, that extend for a distance of many miles. 
During the progress of a pearl-fishery, this singular 
and dreary expanse becomes suddenly enlivened by the 
crowds who congregate from distant parts of India ; a 
town is improvised by the construction of temporary 
dwellings, huts of timber and cajans 2 , with tents of 
palm leaves or canvas ; and bazaars spring up, to feed 
the multitude on land, as well as the seamen and divers 
in the fleets of boats that cover the bay. 
1 It is almost unnecessary to say grina. It is the Meleagrina Mar- 
that the shell fish which produces garitifera of Lamarck, 
the true Oriental pearls is not an 2 Cay an is the local term for the 
oyster, but belongs to the genus plaited fronds of a coco-nut. 
Avicula, or more correctly, Melea- 
B B 3 
