( 0 h 
and has no doubfc grown very perfect. Still 
there were certain things which he thought 
required very mucli to be corrected and he hoped 
that by anoiher year or by iitxt fishing at any 
rate they should be able lo dO a s;reat deal to 
reform the present Sisieni, For tliat purpose 
tliey had Me Honiell working out the life liistory , 
of the oyster ai.d iuvesugating as to the 
enemies of the oysters and the pearls also and 
Mr Horuell ought befoie long to supply thetn 
with some information for their Journal. They 
had also an experiment in which he had taken a 
very personal interest himself. He had it in his 
miud for many months and he was glad to say it 
was working out very well indeed. It was a system 
of washing out, oysters in tiie same way as he 
used to see gold washed out in other parts of the 
wor d. The other day when he tried the 
eight oysters — as an experiment, merely — the first 
produced 10 pearls, not counting the 
seed pearls. They did it in a few minutes and 
they might have done 800 in the same time. He 
thought the experiment promised very well, lie 
thought the old system of washiug by merchants 
would probaVtly survive for a loug time and he 
would be sorry to see it disappear, but it w«s veiy 
good that Government should have a system for 
washii.g oysters when o''casion arose. (Applause). 
This terminated the business. 
.. « 
DAYS OF OLD. 
REMINISCENCES OF EARLY PHOTO- 
GRAPHY. 
{By a Ceylon Man.) 
In one of the recent issues of the Overland 
Observer I notice it mentioned that Mr. Hum- 
phrey Humphreys was the first amateiir 
photographer in the island. If I am not very 
much mistaken, I think that honour must b* 
conceded 
MR. BARTON. 
He took lessons from Mr. Parting hetween 
57-59. Mr. Parting was the first photographer 
to start in the business in a little place in 
Baillie Street- next door, I think, to Findlay 
who was the first European tailor, Mr. 
Parting sold his business to Messrs. Slinn & 
Co. and retired, whilst Findlay, by the way. 
disposed of his business to Bolam and estao- 
lished it general store in Kandy and it was 
whilst supervising some structural altera- 
tions to the building that it collapsed, bury- 
ing him in the ruins from which he was 
taken out dead. Some of Mr. Barton's photos 
of Dondra Head are engraved in your Direc- 
tory for 1863 This gentleman is living in Ban- 
galore. But there is yet another amateur in 
MR, R.W. T. MORRIS, 
better known in his younger days, as " Bob" 
Morris, to distinguish him, I suppose, from 
his late father who was at that time Govern- 
ment Agent Trincomalee. 
In 1862-63 "Bob" Morris was Assistant 
Agent at Nuw.arakalavia and it was at Anu- 
radhapura that I saw his photographs taken 
under great difficulties. The water he ha'd 
to distil himself. He rigged up a very crude 
but at the same time most effective apparatus 
for the purpose and surmounted all obstacles. 
Some of his photos of the ruins of Anu- 
radhapura and Mihintale I have in my 
album, wonderfully well preserved, seeing 
that they are 40 years old. 
