35 



in obtaining a bid of Rs. 1 15 per annum for a five years' 

 lease 



Some slight improvement took place when Govern- 

 ment abandoned the system of leasing out the fishery and 

 conducted it departmentally through the agency of the 

 Custom Houses on the Tanjore coast, but even these 

 improved figures are quite paltry, seldom exceeding 

 Rs. joo per annum. Under the present system, the 

 fishermen bring the shells from time to time as they col- 

 lect them to the custom houses at the ports of Negapatam, 

 Tranquebar, and Tirumalavasal where they are given 

 payment at the rate of Rs. 20 per 1,000 for all above 2| 

 inch diameter. In 1910-11 the number thus collected 

 totalled 13,381 while in 1911-12 they reached 12,149. 



All these shells are obtained fortuitously in the 

 course of net fishing by catamaran fishermen. The bulk 

 of the shells are taken in the vellai valai, a kind of light 

 trawl operated by two catamarans. Neither beam nor 

 otter bpard is used with this net, the mouth being kept 

 distended by the two catamarans which maintain a 

 definite distance apart as they sail a parallel course. 



The Government records do not furnish any light on 

 the reason for the remarkable depreciation in the value 

 of this chank fishery, and the days of prosperity are so 

 long vanished, that up to the present I have obtained no 

 direct enlightenment from enquiries made in the fishing 

 villages visited. I incline to think that in former days 

 divers were employed in this fishery in a systematic man- 

 ner ; the opening up of other and more lucrative callings, 

 especially the great increase in recent years in the 

 demand for boatmen to carry on the lighterage work of 

 Negapatam and other ports has, I believe, brought 

 about the extinction of the divers' trade on this coast, 

 just as the same factor is tending rapidly to the same 

 result at Tuticorin, where the scarcity of available divers 

 has been a source of anxiety and trouble for several 

 years past. The only hope for any considerable improve- 

 ment lies in the adaptation of mechanical means such 

 as dredging, to the raising of the shells. 



(6) South Arcot Fishery. 



As in Tanjore, the fishermen living along the South 

 Arcot coast catch considerable numbers of chanks when 

 using the thuri- valai, or catamaran-trawl. In times long 



3-A 



