1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 167 



tendence of the chank fishery transferred thereto as the most 

 important duties under its control. 



Such a plan would enable these two important departments to 

 be developed economically and on sound practical lines, would 

 enable attention to be given to the development of other fishing 

 industries, marine and fresh-water, at present under no scientific 

 supervision, and finally would set free the Port Officer at Tuticorin 

 from work foreign to the important duties involved in the charge 

 of the port and harbour of Tuticorin, which would then receive his 

 undivided attention. 



Ceylon, JAMES HORNELL, 



February 1905. Marine Biologist to the Govt, of Ceylon. 



XL— COMMENTS ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE IN 

 1905 IN THE LIGHT OF SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCE. 



I find nothing material requires amendment in the recommenda- 

 tions made in 1905, save in respect of the method of inspection 

 and in regard to the suggestions for the improvement of the banks 

 by culture. 



Taking the latter first, experience has shown that the one all 

 important danger to which pearl-oysters are subject, particularly 

 in the very young and in the fully mature condition, is that of the 

 ravages due to predaceous fish. Elsewhere * I have treated of this 

 in some detail. Until three or four months old and even longer in the 

 case of some fishes, the young oysters are preyed upon by almost 

 every one of the host of bottom-feeding fishes that haunt the rocky 

 or stony banks suitable for the settlement of oyster spat. These 

 ravages are so widespread and extensive that unless the spat be pre- 

 sent in enormous quantities, sufficient to satisfy the appetite of the 

 hordes of fishes that gather to the feast, and still to leave at the end 

 of several months, a large quantity of young oysters, no hope of an 



* Hornell, J. An explanation of the irregularly cyclic character of the pearl fisheries 

 of the Gulf of Mannar, Madras Fisheries Btiilelin, Vol. VII, 1916, pp. 11 — 22. 



