NO. 2 (i 922) LACCADIVE FISHERIES 51 



Madras Fisheries Bulletin No. 4 (p. 116). The lack of skill in the local 

 divers taken together with the condition of the sea-bottom as 

 described in the above report, made it impossible to continue the 

 search for adults. 



Low tides are taken advantage of by the women and boys and 

 girls of the island to collect Octopus (App.ilu in vernacular) from 

 the reefs. With two short sticks about three-quarters of a yard 

 long (iron rods thick enough not to bend are also used) in their 

 hands, the people wade through knee-deep water, straining their 

 eyes to find out the crevices among the corals where the animals 

 shelter and from which at times they thrust out one of their arms in 

 search of a probable prey. Immediately on locating the animal the 

 sharp point of one of the sticks is thrust into the animal and with 

 the help of the other the victim is brought out of its retreat. They 

 are made into curry with the usual spices or into soups. 



Small fish are also caught from among the clumps of the big 

 corals by means of a small net called Muduvalai. 



KADAMAT. — On the 25th morning we left Amini in a country 

 boat and landed at the southern extremity of Kadamat island at 

 10 a.m. This island is long and the largest in the whole archi- 

 pelago. The soil is fertile and the jungle-like growth of trees 

 and shrubs in the south is noteworthy, while the northern end 

 of the island is a waste of coarse tall grass, scrub jungle and 

 screw pine, though in recent years coconut plantations have 

 been begun in earnest here, and also in the new accretions at the 

 southern end. Though Alcock who visited the island in 1891 

 makes mention of " lime trees growing and bearing fruit such as 

 one seldom sees in India," except for a scraggy tree with fast 

 dying branches I was not able to find any lime trees. The men 

 are stronger than in Amini and the island appears to have been 

 colonized by, and worked for, the landlords of that island. The 

 charge that "the islanders were sinfully neglectful of their oppor- 

 tunities " can no longer be brought against them, yet the people 

 appear poor (as Mr. A. O. Hume remarked) as a result " of an 

 oppressive influence exercised by the capitalists of the adjacent 

 small, but thickly populated, island of Amini." The area of the 

 island is 750 acres and the population 577 according to the 

 enumeration made while we camped there. During my stay nearly 

 three-fourths of the eastern side of the reef was examined. The 

 corals are in a living condition and luxuriantly growing while 

 the interspaces afford protection and breeding ground for many 

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