11 



get their lines ready in their canoe, and paddle away to their 

 fishing ground ; there they drop their stone anchor : presently 

 one observes that it is warm and he would like a bathe ; over 

 the side he goes down by his mooring rope to see what the 

 bottom is like. He brings up a handful of oysters and gives 

 them to Thamby ; then Thamby thinks he woiild like a bathe, 

 and he goes down also, and brings up a fist full. When they are 

 tired they get back into the canoe and open their spoils, taking 

 out what pearls they can find, and pitching the shells back into 

 the sea. This sort of thing goes on day after day and year 

 after year up and down the coast, and this will partially account 

 for the dead shells so often found on the banks. Is it to be 

 wondered at that oysters take alarm at this constant invasion of 

 their domain and naturally seek some other place of rest ? " 



Far more prejudicial to the welfare of the oysters than an 

 occasional raid upon them by a stray Mutukurupam or 

 Kallymuttu is, in all probability, the Httle mollusc, surauy 

 which clusters in dense masses over large areas of the sea 

 bottom, spreading over the surface of coral blocks, smother- 

 ing and crowding out the recently deposited and delicate 

 young of the oyster. Time after time there is, in the care- 

 fully kept records of the Saperintendent of the Pearl Banks, 

 in one year a note of the presence of young oysters, either 

 pure or mixed with sdran and mud or weed, while, at the 

 next time of examination, generally in the following year, 

 the oysters had disappeared, and the siiran remained. A. 

 few examples will suffice to make this point clear : — 



Devi Far ^ — 6| to 7^ fathoms. 



May 1881. Young oysters mixed with sooram^ and mud. 

 „ 1882. Sooram. 



Permandu Par — 6 to 6J fathoms. 



May 1880. A few oysters of one year age. 

 ,, 1881. Young oysters mixed with sooram and mud. 

 ,, 1882. Sooram. 



Athombadu Par — 7| to 9 fathoms. 



May 1880. Covered with sooram. 

 ,, 1881. Large number of oysters of one year age, with 



sooram in some places and covered with weeds. 

 ,, 1882. No oysters ; sooram in some places. 



The bank, which was fished during the recent fishery, is 

 situated about 10 miles east of Tuticorin, and known as the 



' Far or paar = bank, ^ Sooram =: siiran. 



