103 



above Bhavani (Nerinjipct) wliicli should by itself be of immense value 

 as a source of fish. Small exporimeutal hatcheries should be estab- 

 lished at. Madras and at the new Agricultural station at Coimbatore 

 in view to ascertain the fish \>est suited to minor operations such as 

 the supply of carp fry for wells, ponds, paddy-fields, etc., and to 

 ascertain those facts relating to the food, life, rates of growth, etc., of 

 fish, of whicb we are at present profoundly ignorant. 



213. Minor proposals. — With the sanction of (lovernment the 

 nucleus of a Fisheries Museum and Library will be formed by the 

 purchase of models and photographs of boats, nets, apparatus, 

 hatcherie?, etc., connected with the various branches of the industry. 

 Modern models show boats and nets in actual operation nnd are 

 extremely instructive even to unskilled observers ; the exhibits will be 

 useful for display at the next Industrial Exhibition and can then be 

 located at the Experimental Station which will^ of course, be freely 

 open to visitors and enquirers 



214. It is also proposed to initiate various minor industries relating 

 to sea products, and, as a beginning, to purchase the very simple 

 apparatus needed for the manufacture of ordinary pearl buttons. The 

 industry as it has sprung up of late years in Japan, is alluded to supra, 

 paragraph 164. The apparatus is so small and simple that it may be 

 made a household industry, as in America, and will, at first, be con- 

 veniently located at the Experimental Station on the West Coast 

 until a second is started at or near Pamban. 



215. The necessary details for carrying out the above proposals 

 for an Experimental Station, hatcheries, the purchase of models and 

 button machinery will be found in the letters which accompany this 

 note. 



216. For the above operations, slight and tentative as they are, it is 

 obvious that we require a provision of experts ; non-experts however 

 well-meaning and well informed can effect little in work of a severely 

 industrial and manufacturing character. It is equally obvious that at 

 present not one expert is available save, perhaps, my Assistant Mr. 

 V. V. Uamanan who being already an experimenter and observer in 

 natural history will be able to take charge at once of the initial experi- 

 ments in hatchery work as proposed. But of the men who will conduct 

 the sea and shore practical operations of the experimental station as 

 described above, of those w^ho can be put in as managers of hatcheries, 

 we have not one. A fortiori we have not the men who will be the 

 numerous experts required in the near future for extended work; the 

 scientific yet practical observers, like Professor Mitsukuri and Dr. 

 Kishinouiye, of marine or aquatic biology, on whom will largely 

 depend future administrativb action; the men who can design as well 

 as sail the new boats, make as well as use the new nets ; the industrial 

 experts in the various branches of the curing industry ; the men 



