32 
dirty muddy sand. The quantity fished is large and 
amounts to from 1,00,000 to 1,20,000 per annum. They 
are mostly obtained from beds lying 7 to 8 miles east of 
the villages of Tiruppalagudi and Mudirampattanam. 
During the only two years whereof we have statistics, 
145,206 full-sized shells were fished off the Tiruppala- 
eudi coast and 23,158 off Rameéswaram; the latter number 
is, however, believed to be considerably below a normal 
average, the disparity in the catches from these two places 
being due to the fact that the Government officers were 
thwarted by underground influence from getting a sufh- 
ciency of the Kilakarai divers, who are necessary for 
this section of the fishery. 
The rates paid to the divers by the lessee are usually 
h‘gher than those ruling at Tuticorin as the divers incur 
extra expenses having to work away from home. The 
great majority are Muhammadans (Labbais) from Kila- 
kara’. Twelve years ago the rate for chanks fished to 
the north of Raméswaram Island and as far as the island 
of Kachchetivu was Rs. 30 per 1,000, Rs. 27 per 1,000 
for those from the beds between Pamban and Tondi, the 
port of the Sivaganga zamindari, and Rs. 50 for those 
taken off the Kilakarai coast. At the present time 
rather higher rates rule, Rs. 40 being reputed to be 
said to imported Labbai divers fishing in Palk Bay and 
Rs. 25 to 30 to: the local divers w ho may either be 
Roman Catholics or Hindus of the Karaiyar caste. The 
employers by means of the advance system keep the men 
eternally in their debt and power. A certain contribu- 
tion or tithe of their catch is generally set on one side 
by the divers for the benefit of one of their mosques. 
In 1904, the question of the jurisdiction of the Raja 
of Ramnad over certain chank beds lying from 5 to 7 
miles from shore in the vicinity of Mudirampattanam 
was brought before the High Court of Judicature at 
Madras in the case of Annakumaru Pillai versws Muthu- 
payal and others The defendants or their agents had 
removed chanks from the chank bed at the place named 
and were charged at the instance of the Raja with theft 
of property (chanks) belonging to him. The defendants 
relied chiefly on the fact that the place whence the shells 
were taken lay beyond three miles from shore ; they 
arouedthat theplace was in the open sea beyondterritoria] 
