CEYLON PEARL FISHERIES. 397
and
dividing. You all know that instead of one-quarter of the produce of
the fishery it has recently been found necessary to allot to the
divers, whose work is very hard indeed, one-third of the produce. It is
a most interesting sight to see the fishing boats begin in the morning
by dawn, and anything more beautiful and poetical you cannot imagine.
Floating over a sea that previously was as silent as death, (the guard
ship resembling " a painted ship upon a painted ocean,") you see them
all rushing up, taking their stations, beginning the diving operations,
and working away without intermission from dawn till half-past twelve
or one o'clock. Then they come sweeping back again passing close to
the guard ship were the superintendent of the fishery stands and shouts
out "Ettana chippei ?" (How many shells 1) and they answer,
some 5,000, some 7,000, or 10,000; others 15,000, and so on. The lower
numbers elicit derisive groans, but if a man says 25,000 or 30,000
there are cheers. A diver has been known to collect 80 oysters at a
haul, but 40 are nearer the average, and a couple of millions have been
landed in a day. The boats make for the shore as fast as they can, each
boat striving to be first, and the oysters are divided into lots, the
divers are allowed to take their portion of one-third of the shells at
once and sell them, and by selling them in small quantities they are
often able to get better prices than the Government share realizes. The
prices they get generally, however, regulate largely the prices that
will obtain at the public auction. And a curious and weird sight is the
public auction! Those I saw took place by lamp-light, Mr. Twynam sat at
a table, and the buyers were ranged round. The latter seemed to have
combined in some agreement amongst themselves as to the prices, but
generally their cupidity would get the better of all promises and they
began to bid one against the other going up to higher and higher
prices, much human nature being evinced. In my time in Ceylon, oysters
have been sold, at from R8 to £18 per 1,000. ,£18 was was given for oysters in the time of Sir Henry Ward and I do not know of any higher figure.
Of
the subjects noted for remark, we were compelled to omit many of the
most interesting. We were not able, for instance, to refer to shells of
the pearl oyster, chanks and corals which we had before us for
illustration. There were shells, pure and simple, from the Jubilee
Fishery, and by way of contrast others when fully mature oysters were
taken from the Cheval Par. These latter were coated over by beautiful
structures of coral of most varied design, and there can be no doubt
that the coral insect, while in one Tespect the friend of the pearl
shell, in providing blocks for the mollusks to affix themselves to,
are amongst their enemies by loading them with elaborated carbonate of
lime, so abundant in the waters of the Gulf of Mannar, and in some
cases hermetically sealing up the shell and animal in a tomb of rock.
For we saw specimens of shells so entombed at the scene of the late
fishery. But we forgot our chief point, which, however, we urged on the
Governor subsequently, and that was, that, out of the large revenues
likely to accrue from the great fisheries now apparently certain, an
aquarium should be provided in connection with the Museum, by means of
which the people of Colombo and visitors would be enabled to follow all
the stages in the life history of the pearl oyster. We think the
Scotch Governor met the proposal in even a more liberal spirit than
ever his Irish predecessor did the suggestion that Captain Donnan, who
had laboured so hard to make pearl fisheries successful, ought to
benefit by a share of the proceeds, Governor Gregory was equal to the
occasion and generously conceded that Capt. Donnan was welcome to all
the oysters he could dive for and bring up! Capt. Donnan's advocate is
understood not to have gone into ecstacies of gratitude, for, though it
is true that one oyster may contain 150 pearls, yet 150 shells may be
opened and not one pearl found I We meant specially to point out that,
if artificial culture of the pearl oyster became possible, the
intrinsic value of true pearls (which the imitations closely approach
in beauty) would be most seriously diminished. But the great and
