DESCRIPTION OF THE FEARE-OYSTER BANKS OF THE GULF OF MAXAAl;. 101 



It lies from 9 to L3 miles off the coast, opposite the bight of Kondatchi, the northern 

 point being due west of Aripu and tbe southern of Kallar tower. The paar extends 

 for about Gi miles from north to south, and A\ miles from east to west, but is not all 

 occupied by pearl oysters. The depths vary from 5 to 8^ fathoms. The paar is 

 usually divided into an eastern, a western, and a connecting southern portion, and in 

 most of the fishery charts since the time of Steuaft (1843), these have been combined 

 to form a conventional horse-shoe shape, which, however, does not now correspond at 

 all accurately with the area covered, or likely to be covered, by pearl oysters. 



The parts of the paar differ considerably in character, the east and south being 

 more or less sandy, and the west, and especially north-west, more rocky ; and the 

 effect of this difference can be traced in the condition and history of the pearl oysters 

 from these parts. 



The Cheval Paar has yielded many important fisheries. During the nineteenth 

 century we find that the whole or parts of it were fished in 1804, 180(5, 1808, 1809, 

 1814 (the largest fishery recorded), 1816, 1820, 1829, 1830, 1831, 183G, 1837, 1855, 

 1857, 1858, 1859, 1863, 1874, 1877, 1880, 1881, 1887, and 1888. In the earliest 

 records the Cheval and Modragam paars are united as the Aripu banks. 



West Cheval. Here the bottom, especially towards the north, is very rocky, with 

 little sand. The depth is mostly about 7 to 8 fathoms. The rock is a compact shelly 

 limestone with some quartz sand cemented to it by carbonate of lime. It is much 

 overgrown by Algae and Sponges, and the Sargassum weed is especially abundant. 

 Bare parts of the rock are of a reddish-yellow colour from ferruginous staining, and it 

 is all much tunnelled by Clione and boring Molluscs. Between the long level stretches 

 of rock are smaller sandy tracts, especially towards the south, where the sand is 

 irregular, rising up into little hillocks, amongst which are scattered Nullipore balls and 

 hemispherical Astraeid corals. This large extent of rock, some hundreds of acres of 

 continuous hard bottom, offers favourable conditions for the attachment of spat, and 

 the area is notably prolific. During our inspection in March, 1902, Captain Donnax 

 estimated that there were, on the West Cheval, 123 millions of oysters as against 

 74 millions on the eastern side of the paar. This abundance carries with it, however, 

 the attendant danger of overcrowding as the oysters grow older, and appears to result 

 in a stunted condition and, it may be, disease and wide-spread mortality. The dwarfed 

 state of the oysters on both the North-west Cheval and the Muttuvaratu Paar has 

 been recognised by the divers, and by the Inspectors in their reports, as the 

 " Koddaipakku " variety (see, for example, Sir W. Twynam's " Keport "). Captain 

 Donnan remarks, under date 18th March, 1901, '"I have noticed on previous 

 occasions that young oysters on the East Cheval grow much larger and quicker 

 than oysters on the West side of the Cheval." We found the average size of a 

 fair sample of oysters from the North-west Cheval to lie (March 27th, 1903) : 

 61 - 50 X 58'33 X 2684 millims., while the average size from North-east < 'heval 

 was 76*05 X 71 '45 X 3T45 millims., and the average from Muttuvaratu was 



