T 32 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XV, 



The period for which statistics were compiled was one year and 

 fifteen days. The extension of fifteen days was considered neces- 

 sary as the work of the first fifteen days (July 1 — 15, 1921), when 

 the staff were gaining experience, was considered unsatisfactory 

 and this sanction for extension was received in G.O. Mis. No. 322, 

 Development, dated 7th March 1922. 



The method employed to collect the statistics was different 

 from the one adopted at Tuticorin. Deputing men to attend at the 

 main fish-landing places to ascertain the catch of each fishing 

 catamaran as it was landed and sold, was not possible on the 

 Madras beach as, unlike Tuticorin, there are many landing places. 

 The seaboard being longer, such a method involving the employ- 

 ment of a staff much larger than the two men employed at Tuticorin 

 could not be adopted. Further, Madras, even if the Cooum and 

 tank fish are omitted, receives seafish not only from the Madras 

 waters but also from Ennore, Pulicat and Covelong wherefrom they 

 are brought by boat, by rail, by jutka or as head loads. Therefore 

 it was considered better for the enumerators to work in the 

 markets where nearly all the fish, except for a negligible quantity 

 disposed off straightway to consumers at the landing places, is 

 exposed for sale. 



This work of collecting data from the twenty-one markets of 

 Madras where fish is sold was carried on under difficult circum- 

 stances. What with the inadequacy of the staff engaged — two men 

 from other sections were deputed to help the sanctioned staff of one 

 peon and one clerk and each of them had to visit five or six markets 

 twice in a day— the reluctance of the timid fisherwomen to allow 

 our men to gauge the quantity and price of their fish and the labour 

 troubles and political " hartals " in the lccalities of some of the 

 important markets, the enumerators' duties were very trying. One 

 of the men, the clerk, while doing duty at the Paracheri kadai 

 market, was, on the 13th January 1922, the day of arrival in Madras 

 of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, very severely handled 

 by the mob who relieved him of his notebook containing the data 

 for over a month ; the book, however, was recovered some minutes 

 after the departure of the mob from a gutter close by and fortu- 

 nately only a few pages were torn and those not completely. 



The weight of large fish was calculated by weighing a sample 

 specimen with a spring balance and multiplying its weight by the 

 number of fish counted. As the men became more and more 



