1^22] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 69 



on the cast margin of the Uti par, but that bank the par 

 mandadai said was really south-east. The results proved the 

 latter to be right and the Inspector to be wrong, a false position 

 for the latter to occupy and one that is due entirely to the fact 

 that no shore murks arc indicated on tJie chart in use. No Inspector 

 can be expected to do good work under present conditions. 



The matter presents no difficulties ; the landmarks, which 

 consist of Hare island Lighthouse, the factory chimneys at 

 Tuticorin and the church on Vantivu, are clearly distinguishable 

 from these banks, and I should think the survey office could, from 

 the materials already available plot the position of the several 

 objects with exactitude and without further survey. 



Trie whole of the Uti par was gone over together with the 

 southern portion of the Nagara par, the result showing that but 

 a few odd living oysters remain, aged from 2?>2 to 3 years old and 

 all more or less over-grown with sponges and other growths. In 

 several cases the largest and most frequent of these crusting 

 sponges, the brick-red Clathria indica, completely enveloped the 

 oysters, occupying the whole surface of both valves and rising in 

 numerous bold upgrowths to a height of two and three inches. 



The pars constituting the Uti group have absolute identity in 

 fauna and in physical characteristics. The rock of each par is 

 fairly continuous in its outcrop, with much less sand sprinkled over 

 it than in the case of the Tolayiram Par. To some extent as a 

 consequence of this the fauna is richer in the number of species, 

 in the number of individuals, and in luxuriance of growth. 



Sponges are especially abundant. Among the most charac- 

 teristic are the black-crested Spoiigioiiclla nigra, one specimen of 

 which was partly mantled with a thin crust of crimson-lake 

 Botrylloid ; purple-red Siphonochalina communis (Carter) bearing 

 frequently a like-tinted Antedon, clinging to its tubular branches ; 

 the massive Suberites inconstans and the oyster-crusting Clathria 

 indica. 



Several of these sponges, notably Siphonochalina and Suberites, 

 furnish free quarters to quite a host of diverse lodgers — chief 

 among which are a colourless Alpheus, a scarlet Porccllana, a small 

 Gcbia and a long-armed spiny Ophiuroid {Ophiactis savignii). The 

 last named chiefly affects the large canals of the Suberites, more 

 rarely being found within Siphonochalina. Gcbia burrows in the 

 smaller canals of the Suberites, while the Alpheus and Porccllana 



