PEARLS FROM THE AFRICAN COASTS 155
company
an examination of the resources is now being made by Mr. James J.
Simpson, acting under direction of Prof. W. A. Herdman, of the
Liverpool University, the technical advisor of the Ceylon Company of
Pearl Fishers.
At least four species of pearl-bearing mollusks exist here ; these are Margaritifera vulgaris, M. margaritifera, Pinna nobilis, and
a species of Perna, named in the order of their importance. A
preliminary report of Mr. Simpson (supplied through the courtesy of
Sir Robert Edgcumbe), states that among the Ibo Islands about one half
of the bottom is sandy and the other half is covered with detached
pieces of coral rock, groups of living corals, masses of nullipore, and
expanses of fixed seaweed. On all of these in the shoal waters, there
is such an abundance of pearl-oysters (M. vulgaris) that a
single diver, by simply descending and bringing up a few in his hands
each time, can secure about 200 in fifteen minutes. Oysters also occur
singly on the sandy bottom, but not so abundantly. Within the
three-year-old oysters there are many seed-pearls. It is evident that
there has been an extensive removal of large oysters in recent years
and that large pearls were then found; but the depredations of the
natives now prevent the mollusks from attaining an age and size which
render them useful as pearl-bearers.
Said
Mr. Simpson in his report : "The women here play great havoc on the
reefs "by going out daily and collecting the pearl-oysters at low tide.
All along the coast from Muliga Point to Arimba the shores are covered
with shells. At one place we came across a heap of freshly-opened
oysters which consisted of thirty or forty thousand at the lowest
estimate; while an older heap contained between forty to sixty
millions. Four women who were fishing on the reefs while we were there
had over two thousand oysters in their baskets. Thus it is evident that
immense quantities are annually destroyed. And the worst feature is
that out of those destroyed, not one per cent, were over two years old."
It
is the intention of the East African Pearl Company, as soon as the
investigation of the resources is completed, to police the fishing
grounds so as to put an end to the removal of immature oysters, which
yield only seed-pearls, and to permit them to attain maturity. In
addition to this, it is their purpose to utilize the extensive beds of
oysters lying in comparatively deep water, which are now inaccessible
to the natives owing to their lack of diving skill.
Sir
Robert Edgcumbe writes that it is impossible to say more at present
than that these fisheries at one time bore a high repute, and that the
oysters have continued to exist in multitudes though fished by the
natives in the immature state; and there is every indication that if
properly policed and worked in a scientific way these fisheries should
