do
with the preparation of plumbago, have fully confirmed his
representation as to the incompatibility of pumbago dust and tiled
roofs. In this connection we would advise visitors to plumbago
compounds to be careful how they bear themselves in such slippery
places. A sudden step on to the polished platform may end in an
undignified tumble. And this reminds me of the sensation produced many
years ago in Mincing Lane by the peculiar appearance of some Ceylon
coffee which had been dried on a barbecue where plumbago had been
previously spread. An attempt to impart a factitious colouring to the
beans was suspected until the requisite explanation was afforded.
As this paper may be read beyond the limits of Ceylon, it may be as well to explain that cadjan is
a word, curiously enough of Malay origin, applied in Ceylon to plaited
branches of coconut palms, used for roofing house:-, sheds, carts,
&c. Compound is a yard or enclosure, and barbecue is a platform.
1
have already shown, what I may be allowed to repeat, that for the
average shipments of 12.000 tons per annum of plumbago from Ceylon for
the past five seasons, the yearly supply of casks must have been
45,000, and that the manufacture of these alone must have given welcome
and remunerative employment to carpenters out of work by reason of the
partial collapse of the staple colonial industry : this apart from the
large number of persons (estimated above at 20,000) engaged in mining,
carting, preparing, packing, and shipping tke mineral.
Let
us, therefore, hope that the plumbago industry of Ceylon may continue
to prosper and extend, not as the result of wars or rumours of wars,
but because of the steady and beneficial progress of the peaceful
industries and arts which contributed to the elevation of humanity in
all that constitutes comfort, happiness, and means to cultivate the
loftier instincts and destinies of our race.
PEARLS AND PEARL FISHERIES.
AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. STREETER.
[A representation of a Pearling station appeared in tke Pall Mall Illustrated
Supplement.]
One
or two curious facts came out in the recent correspondence in the
papers respecting the pearling grounds in the Southern Seas—a subject
surely of universal interest. Mr. Streeter, the famous pearl merchant,
was himself one of the correspondents, and we are indebted to him for
giving to our representative the following account of his fisheries in
southern waters:—
There
are not many visible signs of jewels in Mr. Streeter's handsome rooms,
which command a fine view of Holborn. The pearl merchant's first
necessity, after the pearl, is light, for by nature's light only can a
pearl be judged. The tapestry curtains ward off intruding draughts, and
their heavy folds partition off the room when division is necessary.
But the eye of the stranger falls first on the safe, with its doors
thrown open, like an angel's wings. There the eye wanders to the tables
clothed in black, to the burnished scales in their covers of glass, to
the pearl pliers which lie in a tray on the table, to the cases ranged
against the wall. At a table near the window sat Mr. Streeter. gazing
with rapture on a lovely pink pearl. After we had had some
conversation, he said he would show me some of the "riches of the
earth," and bade me plunge my hands into bags full of rubies, bags full
of sapphires and emeralds. He opened mysterious drawers, which shut
with a sharp spring, and produced shabby cases holding gems of
priceless value. Here are strings of iridescent pearls gleaming with
prismatic hues. Here dazzling diamonds, shooting forth brilliant rays,
there a ruby worth thousands, here a cat's-eye fit for a monarch's
ringer—diamonds, rubies, pearls, and emeralds, sapphires and
cat's-eyes, there they lay before me. But only (or a minute. For these
things are not exposed.
