tax, but the fishery of Ceylon is a monopoly in the hands of government.
A very interesting and graphic account of this fishery is given by Captain Percival, from whose "History of Ceylon" the following particulars are extracted.
"There is perhaps no spectacle," says the author, "which the island of Ceylon affords more striking to a European than the Bay of Condatchy during the season of the pearl fishery. This desert and barren spot is at that time converted into a scene which exceeds, in novelty and variety, almost anything I ever witnessed: several thousands of people of different colours, countries, castes and occupations continually passing and repassing in a busy crowd; the vast numbers of small tents and huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or market-place before each; the multitude of boats returning in the afternoon from the pearl banks, some of them laden with riches; the anxious expecting countenances of the boat owners, while the boats are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with which they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich cargo; the vast numbers of jewellers, brokers, merchants of all colours and all descriptions, both natives and foreigners, who are occupied in some way or other with the pearls, some separating and assorting them, others weighing and ascertaining their number and value, while others are hawking them about or drilling and boring them for future use,—all these circumstances tend to impress the mind with the value and importance of that object which can of itself create this scene.
"The Bay of Condatchy is the most central
