1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 5 



Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar," recently published by the Royal 

 Society. 



My grateful acknowledgments are made to my predecessors in 

 this investigation; my work has been immensely facilitated by the 

 extensive data recorded and ably presented in Mr. H. Sullivan 

 Thomas' " Report on Pearl Fisheries " published by the Madras 

 Government in 1884, and in the valuable reports made from time to 

 time by Mr. E. Thurston in the bulletins of the Madras Museum. 

 It has always appeared to me a thousand pities that Mr. Thurston's 

 abilities have not been utilized to a much greater extent than they 

 have been in pearl fishery investigation, seeing how highly 

 qualified he has proved himself for the task. 



I am also pleased to have this opportunity to thank Captain 

 Carlyon, the Port Officer of Tuticorin and Superintendent of Pearl 

 Banks, and Don Gabriel de Cruz Lazarus Motha Vaz, the Jathi 

 Talaivan of the Paravas, for their courtesy and help during the 

 actual work of inspection in May 1904. The Jathi Talaivan, indeed, 

 spared no pains to put me in possession of all historical and 

 traditional information of which he is the depositary owing to the 

 close connexion which has existed for centuries between his fore- 

 fathers and the pearl fishery organization ; such has been of 

 great value to me. 



The Pearl Banks, Ceylon, 



2W1 March 1905. JAMES HORNELL. 



