[xii] CEYLON PEAKL OYSTEE REPOET. 



Such a large total for one day's fishing establishes a record that is likely to remain 

 unsurpassed for many years to come." 



It is exceedingly interesting to find thus, from the official reports, that a considerable 

 number of the oysters (from twenty-seven to thirty millions) credited (in the report 

 of the Superintendent, p. 2) to the South Modragam Paar were really fished from an 

 area extending to the south-east far beyond the usual limit of that paar. We must 

 either conclude that the oysters have extended over the sandy ground lying between 

 the South Modragam Paar and Kutiramalai point or that a new bed of oysters in 

 this position has been fished. The difference may be considered to be unimportant, 

 as being little more than a point in nomenclature. I notice that Mr. Lewis in his 

 report prefers to regard the whole of the large irregular-shaped area as being the 

 South Modragam Paar ; while Mr. Hornell gives to this new southern part a new 

 and quite appropriate name, " Kutiramalai Paar," on the analogy of Aripu Paar, 

 Vankali Paar, Karativo Paar, Chilaw Paar, and others all named after the land off 

 which they lie. I think the latter course is the better simply because it does less 

 violence to our existing ideas, charts and definitions. I reproduce here (fig. 2) a 

 tracing from Captain Donnan's chart with which I worked when on the pearl banks 

 in 1902. It shows the North and South Modragams as two little areas of approxi- 

 mately equal size, and the South is certainly nothing like, either in shape or position, 

 the area from which, judging from Mr. Hornell's sketch-plan given as " Annexure I " 

 on p. 49 of his report (Colombo, 1905), the oysters in question were obtained. In 

 the definitions of these paars which I gave in the first volume of this Report I find 

 that the North Modragam is described (Part I., 1903, p. 105) as lying " south-east of 

 the central part of the Cheval Paar, at from \ mile to 1 mile distant, and is nearly 

 1 mile in diameter. It is about 8|- miles west of Kallar tower. The depth is from 

 5f to 6| fathoms," &c. The description of the South Modragam runs (loc. cit., 

 p. 106): "This lies 1 mile south-south-east of the North Modragam, and is about 

 ^ to f mile in diameter. It is about 7 miles north-north-west of Kodramallai Point, 

 and has a depth of 5|- to 6 fathoms. The bottom is rocky," &c. All this agrees with 

 Captain Donnan's chart and, I think, with previous records of these paars, but not 

 with the area from which the thirty million oysters were fished this year, as shown 

 in Mr. Hornell's sketch-plan which 1 here reproduce (fig. 3) for comparison with 

 fig. 2. Consequently I would favour the application of the new name " Kutiramalai 

 Paar " to this very considerable southerly extension of the area hitherto known as 

 the South Modragam Paar. It has this year proved itself to be of very much greater 

 importance than many paars which have for long enjoyed distinctive names. 



Now to turn to a more interesting point than mere nomenclature. Have these 

 oysters on the Kutiramalai Paar, which had apparently not been inspected and 

 estimated last year, but which have been fished this year along with those of the 

 South Modragam, ever been seen before ? / believe they have, and that I found 

 them myself in March, 1902, when dredging along with Sir William Twynam, 



