50 



MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN 



[VOL. XVI, 



The following table furnishes the valuation particulars of a 

 sample of oysters lifted from a Tuticorin bank : — 



Statement of the valuation and produce 0/8,500 oysters lifted from the 

 Teradipulipiditta Par in October 1 899. 



IV— NOTE ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BANKS. 



The charted pearl banks along the Indian coast of the Gulf of 

 Mannar represent all those patches of rocky ground lying within 

 the I0-fathom line known to the fishermen of that coast. Taken as a 

 whole they deserve the name of pearl banks only so far as being 

 so potentially. The number of these banks which have been 

 known to bear mature oysters during the past century is limited to 

 23 at most, and except in the case of nine, none of them has been 

 fished more than once in this long period. These potential pearl 

 banks extend from Cape Comorin to Rameswaram island at the 

 extreme head of the Gulf, a distance of over IOO miles. They 

 consist of whatever rocky outcrops there are upon the surface of 



