87 



experiment on this bank should be marked out as an important 

 item in the programme of her duties. 



48. Reverting to a comparison of drift-netting as carried 

 on in Malabar and South Canara waters, it has now been made 

 clear, I think, from the facts detailed, that in the former district 

 opportunity offers for expansion on an extensive scale of drift- 

 netting operations by the introduction either of boats and nets 

 as used by Ratnagiri men further north (the physical and 

 faunistic conditions of the sea and sea-bottom are similar in 

 both districts) for the development of the inshore grounds, and 

 of decked boats for the off shore grounds. In the case of the 

 inshore boats, those resorting to port daily, not only is it 

 certain they would have success with the vowri in fishing for 

 what may be called medium sized fish, but bv drift nets of 

 smaller size with a 2-inch mesh, they should net great quan- 

 tities of mackerel (aila = Scomber microlepidotus) usually very 

 abundant during the cold weather on this coast. In years when 

 mackerel and sardines do not resort to inshore waters, these 

 boats would be particularly useful ; they would probably be 

 able to save the situation and turn a bad season into a fairly 

 prosperous one by seeking the shoals in deeper water where at 

 present the crank canoes, good enough for work in smooth 

 water close inshore (within the 5-fathom line), are not able to 

 go. Here I may mention a valuable experience in regard to 

 this disability gained during the "Margarita's" cruise. In 

 order to test whether this disability might be overcome by the 

 use of a launch to tow canoes to and from fishing grounds in 

 deeper water, it was arranged for the " Margarita " to tow two 

 canoes, manned by 14 men and provided with a set of drift nets 

 to a greater distance from coast than they ever go. We left 

 Calicut at 3 -BO p.m. and proceeded due west, stopping at 5-40 

 p.m. at a point 6| miles from land with soft mud bottom, 13 

 fathoms. Here the canoes least off and shot their net at fj-1 5 

 p.m. a moderate north-west wind blowiner and the sea slightly 

 disturbed. At 10-45 p.m. when there was somewhat less wind 

 and sea, one canoe returned and reported that at 8 o'clock there 

 was too much sea to permit of hauling the net and that they 

 were unable to do so till nearly 10 o'clock. They refused to 

 shoot the net again. 



49. As the second canoe did not return (she missed the 

 steamer and found her way to shore eventually) we had to 

 drift about till daybreak. At that time the wind and sea had 

 improved considerably, the weather quite as good as that in 

 which excellent results are obtained by drifters in the North 

 Sea. All the same the canoe men regarded the weather as 

 " bad ", they averred that they could not resume work unless 



