64 



season. Mr. Hornell also considers that mechanical 

 dredging" will shortly have to be relied on to keep up our 

 takes, for which purpose the new schooner will be 

 invaluable. The neglected fishery of South Arcot is now 

 proving profitable and the lease has been sold for three 

 years at a rate more than double that of the first year ; 

 the new fishery at Idinthakarai in the south of the Tinne- 

 velly district opened only last year, also doubled its 

 small output, and gives promise of development. 



26. The Superintendent as a result of the visit to 

 Dacca, etc., has already submitted a practical report on 

 the chank business ; during the year he collected much 

 information for a further report on the chank industry in 

 its technical, economic and ethnological aspects. It is 

 most interesting to hear that in visiting the sites of the 

 ancient cities of Korkai and Kayal in Tinnevelly district, 

 he found in the old rubbish heaps which mark their long 

 deserted sites, many specimens of chank iiwrkshop waste 

 (not broken bangles but actual w^orkshop waste), showing 

 that the chank cutting industry is indigenous to Tinnevelly 

 and was largely practised there in long past centuries. 

 Hence the proposed introduction of the industry will be 

 a revival and not the intrusion of an exotic novelty. 

 Enquiries are being made in England for small experi- 

 mental plant suitable for chank cutting. 



27. It was mentioned last year that the " Pearl 

 whale boat was rather small for her work ; with Govern- 

 ment sanction we have now taken the " Dan " engine 

 from the 25-ton " Turbinella " for which it was hardly 

 powerful enough, and transferred it to the fully decked 

 14-ton " Sutherland " which is now a useful boat with 

 a 15-horse j)ower engine and tows the whole fieet of 

 eight laden canoes at fair speed ; she thus enabled fishing 

 on days when the canoes could not otherwise have 

 reached the fishing grounds, and thus accounted for 

 catches of about 35,000 shells, value to Government 

 about Rs. 2,240, which would otherwise have remained 

 unfished. The " Pearl " is now attached to the Experi- 

 mental Stations in Malabar. 



28. Miscellaneous. — At the instance of Government, 

 the Fisheries department submitted to Government a 

 scheme and plan, drawn up by Mr. Hornell as an Aquarium 

 expert, for the erection at Madras of a suitable Ma?-ine 

 Aquarium (to replace the present very small but very 



