374 



SHELLS. 



[Chap. XL 



I visited the pearl banks officially in 1848 in com- 

 pany with Capt. Steuart, the official inspector. My 

 immediate object was to inquire into the causes of the 

 suspension of the fisheries, and to ascertain the proba- 

 bility of reviving a source of revenue, the gross receipts 

 from which had failed for several years to defray the 

 cost of conservancy. In fact, between 1837 and 1854, 

 the pearl banks were an annual charge, instead of pro- 

 ducing an annual income, to the colony. The conjecture, 

 hastily adopted, to account for the disappearance of ma- 

 ture shells, had reference to mechanical causes; the 

 received hypothesis being that the young broods had 

 been swept off their accustomed feeding grounds, by the 

 establishment of unusual currents, occasioned by deepen- 

 ing the narrow passage between Ceylon and India at 

 Paumbam. It was also suggested, that a previous Gover- 

 nor, in his eagerness to replenish the colonial treasury, 

 had so "scraped" and impoverished the beds as to 

 exterminate the oysters. To me, neither of these suppo- 

 sitions appeared worthy of acceptance; for, in the 

 frequent disruptions of Adam's Bridge, there was ample 

 evidence that the currents in the Gulf of Manaar had 

 been changed at former times without destroying the 

 pearl beds : and moreover the oysters had disappeared 

 on many former occasions, without any imputation of 

 improper management on the part of the conser- 

 vators; and returned after much longer intervals of 

 absence than that which fell under my own notice, and 

 which was then creating serious apprehension in the 

 colony. 



A similar interruption had been experienced between 

 1820 and 1828 : the Dutch had had no fishing for 



