398 CEYLON PEARL FISHERIES.
satisfactory
fact to which we wish to draw attention is that provided a sufficien
supply of boats and divers can be obtained there is an almost certainty
of large and profitable fisheries on the Cheval and Modaragam Pars in
1888 and 1889, while Capt. Donnan is said to have discovered a fresh
bank stocked with oysters estimated at 50 millions which will afford a
fishery in 1890! In the face of all this what pity can there be for the
poor pessimists who tell us that the colony cannot afford to recommence
railway extension ! As to the apparently fabulous powers of
reproduction of the pearl oysters, we may say that exaggeration is
impossible. Even deposited oysters, fairly grown have been found on the
Indian banks, in successive strata superinposed to the height of a
human being. This was in 1884 when the calculation was that there were
five hundred thousands of millions, that "is half a million oj millions (!)
of oysters on the Indian banks. How many millions remain for fishing we
do not know, but we should think not fewer thin a thousand millions;
while we venture to anticipate Capt. Donnan's report by estimating the
number available for fishing in Ceylon within the next three years at
not less than 200 to 300 millions.
THE PEARL FISHERY, THE ANCIENT TANK REGION, AND THE
RUINED CITIES OF CEYLON : AND HOW
TO GET TO THEM.
(From the Ceylon Observer, November 2g, 1887.)
When
the railway to Jaffna is constructed, with a branch from Anu-radhapura
to Mannar, and another to .Trincomalee, a visit to the northern,
north-central, and eastern regions of Ceylon will be so enormously
facilitated that we may anticipate the ancient solitudes being stirred
by the voices of crowds of tourists,—tourists guided by an agent of the
world-renowned Cook of Leicester! But as this is a somewhat distant
contingency, we must look to the management of the steamer which is to
supersede the " Serendib" for arrangements which will enable even
ladies to have a look at the pearl-fishing operations, in the early
stages
Before decay's effacing fingers
Have touched the lines where beauty lingers
of
the nacre-secreting bivalves. Going by steamer to the pearl fishery,
travellers could cross to Madawachchi, where the Central Road and the
mail coach (a bullock coach as far as Dambulla), are met within easy
distance of Anura-dhapura,—by the safe, if slow, means of a bullock
cart. Or, far better, if provision for horse and gig cannot be made,
the visitor to the pearl fishery could provide himself with
half-a-dozen coolies and three jinrikshas, one for himself and two for
his bedding and commissariat. He could thus cross the northern end of
the island from Mannar in the north-west to Trincomalee in the east;
visiting en route the great tanks, Anuradhapura and Minintale-,
Sigri, Dambulla, and Polonnaruwa. At Trincomalee, the visitor from
Colombo and other parts of Ceylon, or the tourist from distant parts,
could by arrangement meet the steamer: Trincomalee (itself an ancient
place) as well as a grand port, Batti-caloa and Galle being well worth
seeing en route to Colombo. We make our good friends, Messrs.
John Walker & Co. a present of these crude ideas, on which we have
no doubt they will improve. A private company can lay themselves out
to plan excursions and so attract passengers, after a fashion which
Government could not possibly attempt. So much as to the opening up to
the comparatively many of interesting scenes and strange regions, which
are at present visited by only the very few.
We
may now glance at some of the many interesting details connected with
the natural history of the pearl oyster and the details of the fishery,
which time did*not permit of being even alluded to at the Conversazione
on Saturday evening. One of the most formidable enemies of the pearl
oysters, next to cur-
