Chap. XI.] 
PEARL FISHERIES . 
375 
twenty-seven years, from 1768 till 1796 1 ; and they had 
been equally unsuccessful from 1732 till 1746. The 
Arabs were well acquainted with similar vicissitudes, 
and Albyrouni (a contemporary of Avicenna), who served 
under Mahmoud of Grhuznee, and wrote in the eleventh 
century, says that the pearl fishery, which formerly 
existed in the Grulf of Serendib, had become exhausted 
in his time, simultaneously with the appearance of a 
fishery at Sofala, in the country of the Zends, where 
pearls were unknown before ; and hence, he says, arose 
the conjecture that the pearl oyster of Serendib had 
migrated to Sofala. 2 
It appeared to me that the explanation of the pheno- 
menon was to be sought, not merely in external causes, 
but also in the instincts and faculties of the animals 
themselves, and, on my return to Colombo, I ventured 
to renew a recommendation, which had been made 
years before, that a scientific inspector should be ap- 
pointed to study the habits and the natural history of the 
pearl-oyster, and that his investigations should be facili- 
tated by the means at the disposal of the Government. 
Dr. Kelaart was appointed to this office, by Sir H. Gr. 
Ward, in 1857, and his researches speedily developed 
results of great interest. In opposition to the received 
opinion that the pearl-oyster is incapable of voluntary 
1 This suspension was in some temps. D'un autre cote il s'est 
degree attributable to disputes with, forme une pecherie a Sofala dans le 
the Nabob of Arcot and other pays des Zends, la ou il n'en exis- 
chiefs,andtheproprietors of temples tait pas auparavant — on dit que 
on the opposite coast of India, who c'est la pecherie de Serendyb qui 
claimed a right to participate in s'est transports a Sofala." — 
the fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar. Albykotjni, in Reinaxid's Frag- 
2 "II y avait autrefois dans le mens Arabes, tfc, p. 125 ; see also 
G-olfe de Serendyb, une pecherie de Reinatjd's Memoire sur I'Inde, p. 
perles qui s'est epuisee de notre 228. 
B B 4 
