01 



that objection to far-away voyaging which characterises so 

 many Indian fisherfolk otherwise suitable. 



56. A seagoing experimental fishing boat would also be able 

 to test various methods for the capture of the flying-fish which 

 abound so greatly beyond soundings. Floating trots baited 

 after the Laceadive manner and the Negapatam screw -pine lure 

 would both be tried, together with others which are under 

 consideration. In actual work, in order to expedite the opera- 

 tions, several fishing methods may be tested simultaneously, for 

 example, shark-trots, bonito-trots and flying-fish lures are 

 all capable of operation at one and the same time, while 

 seer- whining may be tested on the way out and home. 



57. Fish-wells. — Line-caught fish are particularly well suited 

 to be taken ashore alive. Unlike trawled and drift-netted fish 

 they suffer no serious injury in the process of being caught and 

 may be transferred from the hook to a "well" aboard the 

 fishing boat or to a live ear without hurt, and iu either of these 

 receptacles may be conveyed to port and kept for a reasonable 

 time till required for market. Naturally prime fish so treated 

 would command excellent prices and would come in most 

 usefully whenever a short spell of bad weather prevented boats 

 from putting to sea. Kora (Sciaena) and such genera as 

 Luijanus, S err anus and Leihrinus, fish likely to be caught in 

 quantity, and all tolerant of handling and some amount of 

 knocking about, are particularly suitable for carriage alive in 

 wells and cars. 



The determining influences which control the migrations of 

 sardines and mackerel on the Indian Coast. 



58. It is matter of common knowledge that the supplies of 

 both sardines and mackerel exhibit enormous and at present 

 inexplicable fluctuations from time to time in the Malabar and 

 South Canara fisheries ; sardine shoals in particular are known 

 to be peculiarly variable in their distribution through the years 

 whereof we have any records, in some seasons being so prodi- 

 giously abundant that 34,000 tons of their dried bodies may be 

 exported in one year, e.g., 1907-1908, after all food requirements 

 for fresh and cured fish have been satisfied, the latter accounting 

 for upwards of a quarter of a million maunds in a prolific year, 

 while in other seasons the supply falls away so utterly that not 

 a ton of fish is made into manure. In such years of dearth the 

 amount cured may fall as low as 28,702 maunds (1898). To 

 compile data from past records sufficiently extensive and reliable 

 to be of real value in an investigation of the factors determining 



