40 CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



No other fishable oysters in any quantity are to be found on the Cheval Paar, with 

 the exception of an irregular and sparsely populated patch on the south-west corner 

 of the South-west Cheval a remnant left from the last fishery. The quantity is 

 just under 3,500,000, reckoning the area at 1,150,000 square yards and the number of 

 oysters per dive as 9. No spat is here present, and as there is no admixture of a 

 younger generation, these oysters, which will be nearly 6 years old in March next, 

 should give a high valuation in pearls. They are too unevenly distributed to permit 

 of being dredged to any advantage. The native divers should, however, find the 

 patch remunerative, and it will probably be found advisable to begin next year's 

 fishery on this ground. The rest of this area (south-west) is blank, without even a 

 trace of the very young oysters found elsewhere (see fig. 14). 



The whole of the remaining sections without exception the Mid-west, the North- 

 west, the North-central, the Central, the North and the North-east were everywhere 

 packed densely in the beginning of November with very young oysters of from 1|- to 

 1\ months of age, healthy in condition, vigorous in growth, and too abundant to 

 estimate in numbers. Indeed, so great is the profusion that Mr. Hornell reports 

 that " the remainder of the 2 \- to 3 -year-old oysters that abundantly stocked much of 

 this region in the early part of the present year are so masked by the covering of 

 spat as to be unrecognisable by sight. The divers cannot distinguish between rock 

 and old oysters ; both are submerged in this young brood of oysters, and till the 

 masses are brought to the surface the differences are not seen. Even if the quantity 

 of old oysters were considerable, fishing under such circumstances would be well nigh 

 impossible ; but, as it is, we are saved having to face this difficulty by the fact that 

 the North-west, Mid-west, and North-east sections have been ravaged by ray-fish 

 (Trygonidse) during the last few months, and the numbers of mature oysters so 

 thinned that these regions, for all practical purposes, may be considered blank so far 

 as concerns a fishery during the next 2 years. The prospects for an extensive fishery 

 4 years hence are on the other hand excellent ; by that time the present spat will be 

 old enough to be fished on those regions where growth progresses most rapidly." 



On the North Modragam there is a small bed of 700,000 square yards in extent, 

 covered with oysters of 2 to 3^ years old, ranging in density from 1G to 24 per dive. 

 This bed should yield at least 4,700,000 oysters if fished in March next. Spat is 

 absent from the whole of this section. 



The South Modragam bears a much larger bed, fully 2,200,000 square yards in area. 

 At 24 oysters per dive the present population is estimated to be about 21,000,000. 

 Unfortunately for fishing operations, very young oysters (spat) are extremely 

 abundant, and may prove somewhat troublesome to the divers, as practically every 

 old oyster will have to be, at the least partially, stripped of its load of young. 

 Mr. Hornell recommends that " fishing operations should be hastened as much as 

 possible so far as this bank is concerned, as the health of the fishable generation is far 

 from satisfactory. The oysters are thin and the shells of a large proportion are so 



