and
consequently a higher price to the natives, who fished to meet the new
demand with improvkent ardour. The consequence is that the lagoons are
less productive, and that even the most fertile give manifest signs of
exhaustion. The prospect of having the inhabitants of Tuamotu thrown on
its hands in a state of helpless destitution, as well as of the
disappearance of the principal article of the trade of Tahiti, and an
important source of revenue to the colony, alarmed the Colonial
administration and the Ministry of Marine and the Colonies in Paris.
Accordingly, M. Brandely was selected to study the whole subject on the
spot. The points to which he was instructed to direct special attention
were these : (I) 1'he actual state of the lagoons which produce
oysters: are they beginning to be impoverished, and if so what is the
cause, and what the remedy ? (2) Would it be possible to create at
Tuamotu, Gambier, Tahiti and Moorea, for the cultivation of mother-of
pearl, an industry analogous to that existing in France for edible
oysters ? Would it be possible by this means to supply the natives of
Tuamotu with continuous, fixed, remunerative labour which could render
them independent, and remove them from the shameless cupiditiy of the
traders ? Could they not be spared the hardships and dangers resulting
from the continued practice of diving, and be turned to more fixed
sedentary modes of life, by which they might be raised gradually in the
social scale ? (3) Should the pearl fishing in the archipelagoes be
regulated, and, if so, what should be the the bases of such regulations
? It was on the mixed economical and philanthropic mission here
indicated that M. Brandely went to Tahiti in February last. The
statistics did not s ow any decline in the production of
mother-of-pearl, but a careful study on the spot showed that this was
due to the great amount of the clandestine traffic, and that the
lagoons were growing less productive day by day, that beautiful
mother-of-pearl was becoming rarer, and in order now-a-days to get
oysters of a marketable size, the divers are forced to go to ever
greater depths. M. Brandely recommends prompt and vigorous measures be
taken at once, as the lagoons of Tuamotu will soon be ruined for ever.
The partial steps already adopted have been useless. The total
prohibition of fishing in some of the islands for several years has
faikd, because it has been found that the pintadine is hermaphrodite,
and not, as formerly was believed, unisexual. The cause of the
impoverishment of the lagoons is excessive fishing, and nothing else.
He thinks that it is possible to create in Tuamotu, Gambier, Tahiti and
Moorea a rational and methodical cultivation of mother-of-pearl
oysters, analogous to that existing with regard to edible oysters on
the French coasts, and to constitute for the profit of the colony an
indusirial monopoly which no other conntry can dispute, for nowhere
else can such favourable conditions be met with.—Nature.
METALLIC VEINS IN THE ROCKS OF CEYLON.
Sir,—There has been much learned speculation about the age of the rocks in Ceylon, but it seems to me of very little
importance what place they occupy seeing that they are old and
crystalline enough to make it highly probable that they contain
something of more value than fossils. I mean metallic veins, the search
for which seems to me to have been sadly neglected, for it is hardly
possible that rocks so crystalline could prevail over such a large
extent of country and not have some payable fissures in them. I have
only heard of one case where any real prospecting was done, and, I
believe, some silver found, but the work was not carried out
sufficiently to prove whether the vein was a paying one or not. Some
good, however, was done by the attempt as it showed that veins may be
looked to run from about E. N. E to W. S. W., same as they do in Wales.
Many erratic attempts have been made to find gold in bedded quartz
when the strata chanced to be sufficiently on edge to give it the
appearance of a fissure vein; but nothing was examined that did not
show quartz, as only gold
