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in some seasons. The hours of diving are confined to 

 the hours between 7 a.m. and i i'.m., and if calms 

 prevail the divers must either stay ashore and lose their 

 e.itirc day or must fatigue themselves rowing their boat 

 the six to twelve miles that intervene between the shore 

 and the fishing grounds, where too they may not arrive 

 till 10 x\.M. or even later. When the Government 

 took over the actual working of the fishery, a small 

 schooner, the " Margaret Northcote " equipped with 

 auxiliary steam, belonged to the Pearl Fishery Depart- 

 ment and this vessel in spite of her low horse-power, 

 12 only, did useful work in towing the divers' canoes to 

 sea when calms prevailed — a great boon to the divers. 

 In 1893 the paddle-wheel steamer " Margarita " replaced 

 the *' Maroaret Northcote " but as her working- was 

 costly in fuel, she was seldom used for towage. 

 When the Fisheries Department took control in 1909, 

 one of the first steps taken was to sell the " Margarita " 

 and obtain a motor launch specially adapted for the 

 towage of canoes, as it was recognized as vitally impor- 

 tant that the great losses caused by morning calms must 

 be remedied as far as possible if the fishery were to be 

 improved in its financial results. Not only was the 

 direct loss, due to the smaller number of shells collected, 

 in question ; the discouragement felt by the divers as 

 day after day they saw lovely fishing weather wasted 

 through their inability to reach the beds in time, was a 

 more serious matter. The new arrangement proved so 

 satisfactory, after two seasons' trial, that a still more 

 powerful launch, the " Sutherland," was stationed (191 1) 

 at Tuticorin, in order to further expedite the arrival of 

 the divers on the fishing grounds when sail-power was 

 useless. 



The danger from man-eating sharks is slight ; sharks 

 of dangerous species are seldom seen in the neighbour- 

 hood of the chank beds but when a suspicious fin is 

 really seen, the divers stop work and are disinclined to 

 resume for several days. Tamil divers never make any 

 effort to kill or drive away a shark themselves. In some 

 cases, particularly if the season is drawing to a close and 

 they are willing to see it end, they use the appearance of 

 a shark as an excuse to clamour for the closure of the 

 fishery — indeed I have strong reason to believe they 

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