[Footnote 1:  This suspension was in some degree attributable to disputes with the Nabob of Arcot and other chiefs, and the proprietors of temples on the opposite coast of India, who claimed, a right to participate in the fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar.]

[Footnote 2:  “Il y avait autrefois dans le Golfe de Serendyb, une pecherie de perles qui s’est epuisee de notre temps.  D’un autre cote il s’est forme une pecherie de Sofala dans le pays des Zends, la ou il n’en existait pas auparavant—­on dit que c’est la pecherie de Serendyb qui s’est transportee a Sofala.”—­ALBYROUNI, in RENAUD’S Fragmens Arabes, &c, p. 125; see also REINAUD’S Memoire sur l’Inde, p. 228.]

It appeared to me that the explanation of the phenomenon was to be sought, not merely in external causes, but also in the instincts and faculties of the animals themselves, and, on my return to Colombo, I ventured to renew a recommendation, which had been made years before, that a scientific inspector should be appointed to study the habits and the natural history of the pearl-oyster, and that his investigations should be facilitated by the means at the disposal of the Government.

Dr. Kelaart was appointed to this office, by Sir H.G.  Ward, in 1857, and his researches speedily developed results of great interest.  In opposition to the received opinion that the pearl-oyster is incapable of voluntary movement, and unable of itself to quit the place to which it is originally attached[1], he demonstrated, not only that it possesses locomotive powers, but also that their exercise is indispensable to its oeconomy when obliged to search for food, or compelled to escape from local impurities.  He showed that, for this purpose, it can sever its byssus, and re-form it at pleasure, so as to migrate and moor itself in favourable situations.[2] The establishment of this important fact may tend to solve the mystery of the occasional disappearances of the oyster; and if coupled with the further discovery that it is susceptible of translation from place to place, and even from salt to brackish water, it seems reasonable to expect that beds may be formed with advantage in positions suitable for its growth and protection.  Thus, like the edible oyster of our own shores, the pearl-oyster may be brought within the domain of pisciculture, and banks may be created in suitable places, just as the southern shores of France are now being colonised with oysters, under the direction of M. Coste.[3] The operation of sowing the sea with pearl, should the experiment succeed, would be as gorgeous in reality, as it is grand in conception:  and the wealth of Ceylon, in her “treasures of the deep,” might eclipse the renown of her gems when she merited the title of the “Island of Rubies.”

[Footnote 1:  STEUART’S Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon, p. 27:  CORDINER’S Ceylon, &c, vol. ii. p. 45.]

[Footnote 2:  See Dr. KELAART’S Report on the Pearl Oyster in the Ceylon Calendar for 1858—­Appendix, p. 14.]