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XXIX. Account of the Pearl Fisheries of the North-West Coast of the Island of Ceylon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2009

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Extract

It would give me great pleasure, were it in my power to explain the little I have remarked on the nature of the pearl-oyster, in the style the subject requires. Having had opportunities of obtaining a general knowledge of most fisheries, I cannot but regret that my attention was so wholly absorbed by professional pursuits, that very little was bestowed on the natural history or habits of the animal in question.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* Perhaps also to the fact that, in some parts of the East, the spawn of certain fish is suspended in vapours, and brought down by the rain.

* The Chank-shell, or Voluta gravis.—V ide Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 543†, note (B).

* The late Marquess of Londonderry, upon the recommendation of SirJohnston, Alexander, intended in 1810Google Scholar, had he remained in office, to have sent a naturalist out to Ceylon for the express purpose of investigating the natural history of the Pearl-oyster, the Chank-fish, and the Coral insect in the gulf of Manár. The Pearl-oyster and Chank-fish are sources of considerable revenue to the Ceylon government, and the coral insect is a most active agent, as is well known, in bringing about some of the greatest changes on the surface of the globe. Such an inquiry, therefore, must be at all times an object of great public interest.