58 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XI, 



comparatively few green Peridinians and a very few Diatoms. 

 Dead crabs (chiefly Neptiinus pclagicus, with a few Thalamita, Scylla, 

 Nephmus sangiiinolentus and Matuta) were abundant in the wash of 

 the tide and along tide-mark and crowds of men and boys were 

 busily engaged in netting and spearing crabs and fish in the shal- 

 lows. The fish were chiefly soles (Plagusia bilineata) and small 

 jewfishes (Sciaenids), together with smaller numbers of catfishes, 

 nonthal (Sillago) and Konippa)! ( Platycephalus). Several fairly large 

 shore seines were being operated and these made great captures. 

 Two penivalas, each used from two canoes nearer the rocks at the 

 south end of the bay, made even greater hauls-and in these were 

 to be seen larger jewfishes and numerous large crawfishes ( Panu- 

 linis) and many Ncptitnus; the catches, however, consisted princi- 

 pally of soles and I was told that several of these large nets had 

 been torn the night before because of the immense weight of soles 

 captured. All the live fish seen were evidently in a state of 

 exhaustion, varying in degree from a slight lack of ordinary vigour 

 to one of marked stupefaction or coma. In the latter the gills had 

 the appearance characteristic of asphyxiation and in the case of 

 the crabs, the stomach and intestine were empty. Over the whole 

 area affected, the water was olive-brown, the sea being calm with 

 no apparent current within the bay. The mortality continued 

 during the next three days, the affected area moving slowly north- 

 wards along the shore in response apparently to an eddy-drift 

 within the bay. With this continuance of the poisonous condition, 

 an extension of the mortality became apparent. On the first day a 

 few Hippa were seen thrown up but upon the third day, thousands 

 of dead of the two species found here, together with a few of the 

 rarer Albunea, accumulated on the level beach adjacent to the Old 

 Town. The great majority were dead, but a few were seen feebly 

 and unsuccessfully trying to burrow. Littoral molluscs were also 

 greatly affected; Donax cuncata was thrown up dead in quantity 

 near the mosque, and still larger numbers were seen washing to 

 and fro on the bottom. A small Pholas and some Mytilids were 

 also seen dead in considerable quantity, together with occasional 

 dead individuals of Donax scortum, a large Mactra and other 

 bivalves. 



Along with the stranded Hippa were found over a dozen indi- 

 viduals of the fine Alcyonarian, Cnvernularia obesa, still alive but 

 evidently in an advanced stage of asphyxiation, as the polyps 



