HE GULF OF MANAR, "THE SEA ABOUNDING IN PEARLS"]

Scientists have long been aware that the pearl shell-fish possesses
locomotive powers, which it uses when in quest of food or protection,
and to escape impure localities. During the Dutch occupation of Ceylon,
for example, there was a period of several years when the oysters'
boycott of the Manar banks was virtually unanimous.

It is an accepted fact that pearls are excretions of superimposed
concentric _laminae_ of a peculiarly fine and dense substance, consisting
in major part of carbonate of lime. Linnaeus, believing in the
possibility of producing pearls by artifice, suggested the collecting of
mussels, piercing holes in their shells to produce a wound, and bedding
them for five or six years to give pearls time to grow. The Swedish
government succeeded in producing pearls of a sort by this process; but
as they were of trifling value, the experiments were discontinued.

Cunning Chinese and Japanese have sought of late years to assist or
improve on nature's pearl-making methods by inserting tiny shot or
grains of sand between the mantle and the shell, which in time become
coated with nacre. Not long since there was a movement in Japan to
embark in pearl production upon a basis wholly commercial, and its
promoters discussed it as they might a project for supplying a city with
vegetables. One of the claims of those exploiting the venture was that
they could keep pace with fashion's changes by supplying pearls of any
shape, pear, oval, or spherical. This has been accomplished in other
countries, and European and American dealers have had years of
acquaintance with the "assisted" pearl, a showy and inexpensive
counterfeit, but one attaining to no position in the realm of true gems.
The distinction between fine pearls and these intrusive nacre-coated
baubles, alluringly advertised as "synthetic pearls," has been
demonstrated by more than one devotee of science.

There are definite rules for determining when a Ceylon fishery will be
held, for twice a year the banks are systematically examined by the
marine biologist, and estimates made of the number of oysters present on
each bank. Whenever their age and size appear to warrant the step, a
sample catch of twenty thousand oysters is made by divers employed by
the government, and a valuation is formed of the pearls they produce. If
found to average ten or twelve rupees[1] to a thousand oysters, the
government is advised to p