The honeycombed eighteen pounder, which was the signal gun of
former years, is choked with drifting sand, and the air of misery
about the place is indescribable.
Now that the diving helmet has rendered subaqueous discoveries,
so easy, I am surprised that a government survey has not been
made of the whole north-west coast of Ceylon. It seems
reasonable to suppose that the pearl oyster should inhabit depths
which excluded the simple diver of former days, and that our
modern improvements might discover treasures in the neighborhood
of the old pearl-beds of which we are now in ignorance. The best
divers, without doubt, could never much exceed a minute in
submersion. I believe the accounts of their performances
generally to have been much exaggerated. At all events, those of
the present day do not profess to remain under water much more
than a minute.
The accounts of Ceylon pearl fisheries are so common in every
child's book that I do not attempt to describe the system in
detail. Like all lotteries, there are few prizes to the
proportion of blanks.
The whole of this coast is rich in the biche de mer more commonly
called the sea-slug. This is a disgusting species of mollusca,
which grows to a large size, being commonly about a foot in
length and three or four inches in diameter.
