DESCRIPTION OF THE PEARL-OYSTER BANKS OF THE GULF OF MANAAR. 1 1 5 



paar in March, 1903, were "incredibly numerous, thousands in sight, crowding and 

 even hiding the rock to which they anchor. One had to trample on them as one 

 walked no vacant spots to put the feet." Mr. Hornell estimated them at about 

 125 adult oysters to the square yard. Captain Donnan's estimate in March, 1902, 

 was 277 millions for the whole paar. This number has probably been greatly reduced 

 since by disease. Fig. 39 gives some idea of the number and distribution of oysters 

 in November, 1902. 



Batistes stellatus, the file fish, seemed, during the inspection, to be very abundant 

 on this paar, much more so than in the Cheval district. Many were seen in the water, 

 and the boat's crew caught six in a quarter of an hour. It is interesting to note, in 



Fig. 39. Inspection charts of (A) northern and (B) southern parts of Muttuvaratu Paar in November, 

 1902. There are four concentric circles made by the divers' boats between the centre and the 

 {-mile buoy, four between that and the J-mile buoy, and four from that to the f-mile. Each 

 complete area is therefore 1-| mile in diameter. The numbers enclosed in rings indicate depths 

 in fathoms. The numbers on the concentric circles give the quantities of oysters brought up at 

 a dive on that spot. The cones indicate dives on a rocky bottom with no oysters. The dotted 

 line therefore surrounds the oyster-bearing area. 



connection with this abundance of Batistes, that the oysters examined here are infested 

 with Tetrarhynchus cysts to a much greater degree than those from any other bank. 



This paar is essentially a rocky bank, well adapted for the deposit of spat, but less 

 suitable than the Cheval Paar for rearing adult well-grown healthy oysters. It is the 

 same type of paar as the Dutch Modragam and the Karativo. Amongst the other 

 animals seen were the sponge Phyllosjwngia holdsworthi, the starfishes Pentaceros 

 lincki, Narcloa tuberculata, Ophiocoma scolopencbrina and Linckia Icevigata, various 



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