16 CEYLON PEARL OYSTER REPORT. 



must all have been of much the same age, those on the East Cheval, and especially on 

 the North-east, seem to have grown larger and looked older than the others. They 

 were, the first to he fished. Figs. 11 to 14 also show the rise and growth of the young 

 oysters, now between 2 and 3 years old, which will probably provide a fishery in 1905 

 or 1906. In addition to the areas shown on the Eastern Cheval, they also occupy 

 considerable parts of the South, Central, and Western. There are, as yet, no younger 

 oysters in the district. 



The first set of diagrams (figs. 5-8) shows the condition of the Cheval Paar at the 

 inspections from March, 1884, to March, 1893. The continuous thick line represents 

 the outline of the paar in each case. In fig. 5 the dotted area represents the part 

 covered with oysters about 3 months old in March, 1884, and the area enclosed by 

 a broken line shows the position of these same oysters in March, 1885. The shrinkage 

 seen in the south-west corner becomes more marked in the following year. 



In fig. 6 the dotted area is that occupied by 2|--year old oysters in March, 1886, 

 and the broken line shows the distribution of the same oysters in March, 1 887 (then 

 3j years old). The oysters now formed two distinct beds, corresponding roughly with 

 the East and West Cheval. These oysters were fished in March, 1887, and March, 

 1888, and, although so young, yielded a good return. 



In fig. 7 the dotted areas on the Western Cheval represent two patches of young 

 oysters, and that on the Eastern Cheval some scattered mature ones in November, 

 1888 (left over from the fishery in March) : the broken line encloses an area covered 

 with oysters 3 months old in November, 1889, while the four black patches show the 

 parts covered with oysters 15 months old in November, 1890. None of these 

 survived to March, 1892, when the bank was found quite bare of pearl oysters. 



In fig. 8 the black areas show the extent of ground covered by young oysters, 

 6 to 9 months old, in March 1893. These scattered deposits came to nothing, as the 

 bank was found to be bare of oysters at the inspections of 1894 and 1895. 



The following six diagrams (figs. 9 to 14) show the distribution of oysters on the 

 Cheval Paar during the period March, 1896, to April, 1903, as shown by the periodic 

 inspections and the fishery of 1903. The conventional outline of the bank is shown 

 as a continuous thick line. In fig. 9 the area with oblique lines was covered with 

 oysters 6 months old in March, 1896, the small black areas were occupied with 

 oysters 3 to 6 months old in March, 1898, and the areas enclosed by a clotted line 

 (including an extent of about 5800 acres, occupying the greater part of the West and 

 South Cheval) indicate young oysters at the inspection of March, 1900. These must 

 have appeared as spat after the inspection of 1899, and are of interest as giving rise 

 to the very important fisheries of 1903 and 1904. The bank was bare of oysters at 

 the inspections of 1894, 1895, 1897, and 1899. 



In fig. 10 the black areas show the distribution of oysters from 1 j to 1| years old 

 at the inspection of March, 1901, the dotted circles in this and subsequent figures 

 showing the areas which were surveyed. 



