208 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



but not nearly so plentifully — only about one-tenth the quantity — as 

 they do on the north coast of Rameswaram Island during the 

 north-east monsoon. In a single season the collection of cuttle 

 bones from Rameswaram alone amounts to from lO to 14 cwt., a 

 quantity representing a very large number of bones. The total 

 Indian export amounts to a considerably larger quantity. Several 

 fishing villages on the mainland, such as Morepanai near Uppur, 

 report an annual collection of 20 to 50 bags each per annum. A 

 considerable quantity is also obtained from the Travancore and 

 Malabar coasts ; most of this is exported through Tuticorin. From 

 Kilakarai 14^ cwt. were shipped to Colombo during 1914-15. 



A considerable demand exists in Europe for cuttle bone, especi- 

 cally for large sizes. 



Palk Bay fishermen cherish the belief that cuttlefish cast their 

 bones annually in February and March, this being the season 

 when the bones are thrown ashore in great quantity. Strangely 

 enough no shoals of cuttlefish are ever caught in nets — only stray 

 individuals ; that large shoals do abound is evident, for it 

 occasionally happens after a severe storm that very great numbers 

 are thrown up on the beach, dead but quite fresh. The village 

 women collect them, cure them in the sun and take to market, 

 where they generally find a ready sale. 



A small and very pretty form of Cephalopod is Sepiola, a stout 

 form seldom exceeding an inch or an inch and a half in length. 

 Its distinguishing feature is the presence of a rounded paddle-like 

 fin on each side of the rotund body. 



The last of the ten-armed forms is the mysterious SPIRULA of 

 which only a single species, SpiniJa prroiiii, is known. It must live 

 in great profusion in some locality in the tropics, for multitudes of 

 its curious, loosely coiled "ram's horn " shell are to be found on 

 every beach in the Pacific and Indian Oceans after a spell of long 

 continued onshore winds. Only a very few specimens of the 

 animal have ever been found ami absolutely nothing definite is 

 known of its habits. It has the appearance of a long-bodied 

 Sepiola l^ereft of its fins, and measures about ?? inches in length. 

 It has the usual eight short arms and two long tentacular ones. 

 Towards the end of the body on each side, the last whorl of the 

 shell projects slightly, but still covered by a thin fold of the 

 mantle ; hence it is an internal shell like the " bone " of the cuttle- 

 fish. A terminal sucker or pore exists at the posterior extremity 



