17 



at the rate of an inch in two minutes. The mysterious 

 disappearance of the oysters from the Ceylon pearl bank 

 prior to a recent fishery must, I think, be attributed to the 

 action of a strong under-current, and not to voluntary 

 migration of the headless mollusc. 



The recent Tuticorin pearl fishery was carried on from a 

 temporary improvised village, erected on the barren sandy 

 shore at Saldpatturai, 2 miles north of the towTi, and built 

 out of palmyra and bamboo, the inflammability of which 

 was demonstrated on more than one occasion. The village 

 consisted of the divers' and merchants' quarters and bazdrs, 

 where, as the fishing progressed, the product of the oysters 

 •was exposed for sale ; bungalows for the officials connected 

 with the fishery ; a tent used by myself as a zoological 

 laboratory; dispensary; kottus (or koddus), i.e., enclosed 

 spaces in which the counting, decomposition, and washing of 

 the oysters are carried on ; a Roman Catholic chapel ; and 

 the inevitable isolated cholera quarters. 



The fishery commenced on the 25th of February under 

 a combination of adverse conditions which seriously affected 

 the revenue, viz., the presence of the pearl bank at a 

 distance of 10 miles from the shore and in 10 fathoms of 

 water, and the co-existence of a fishery on the Ceylon coast, 

 where the oysters were to be obtained at a distance of about 

 5 miles from shore and at a depth of 5 to 7 fathoms. The 

 natural result was that the natives, keenly alive to their own 

 interests, went off with their boats from the Madras seaport 

 towns of Pdmban and Kilakarai to the Ceylon fishery, 

 where they could earn their money more easily and with 

 less discomfort than at Tuticorin, leaving the Tuticorin bank 

 to be fished by a meagre fleet of about 40 boats. 



An excellent account of the method of conducting the 

 pearl ^shery at Tuticorin has been published in the " Hand- 

 Book of Directions to the Ports in the Presidency of Madras 

 and Ceylon," 1878, from which the following varies only in 

 points of detail. 



The landwind, under favourable conditions, commences 

 to blow soon after midnight, and a signal gun is fired by the 

 beach master as a warning that the fleet of native boats, 

 each with its complement of native divers, can start out to 

 sea, their departure being accompanied by a good deal of 

 noise and excitement. The bank should be reached by day- 



