NARRATIVE. 



r>i 



united in clumps, it is evident that they are in a dangerous position and are liable to 

 be overwhelmed and smothered at any time by a shifting of the loose bottom. 



There is apparently plenty of available hard ground with a dead coral, or 

 consolidated sand, or Nullipore bottom round about the known paars to which young 

 oysters from unsuitable sandy grounds or from overcrowded spots could be easily 



Fig. 12. Diagram showing the arrangement of pearl oysters (large and small) in clumps on the sand 



and singly attached to flat ledges of rock. 



moved. We accumulated many observations bearing on this question during the next 

 few weeks and also during Mr. Hornell's inspection visit to the banks in November, 

 1902, and during the fishery of March and April, 1903. It will be further discussed 

 in our Recommendations at the end of this report. 



In order to trace the extension of the pearl oysters beyond the limits of the 

 recognised paars, we took a number of hauls of the dredge, in the afternoon, from 

 south to north in the middle between the East and West Cheval paars on, in the 

 main, a sandy bottom. These may be joined as 



STATION XLVIIL Between East and West Cheval paars ; depth 6|- to 7^ fathoms ; 

 bottom sand, fragments of dead Coral, shells and Nullipore ; dredged. 



Some solitary Corals, Haliconiaria saccaria ; 



Sal/mads sulcata and S. dussumieri, Laganum depressum, Locenia elongata, many 

 Clypeaster humilis, Eehinolampas oviformis ; 



Polyzoa 13 species, amongst which are Lepralia dorsiporosa, Micropora coriacea, 

 Scrupocellaria scrupea, Schizoporella lineata, Cellepora avicularia, Idmonea serpens, 

 Smittia reticulata and Brettia sp. ; 



Stenothoe marina (variety) and other Amphipods ; pearl oysters (very many, mostly 

 young), T'urbinella rapa and a few common Molluscs ; 



Asymmetron (Heteropleurou) cingalense. A new species of Emmelichihys was also 

 obtained here at a later date. 



