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traders in the coast villages who resell to merchants 
who export them to Calcutta from time -to time. 
The fishermen are mostly Parawas living in the 
villages between Velinjam, near Trivandrum, in the north 
and Kolachel in the south—the beds being situated off 
‘this part of the coast. From what I can glean from divers 
who have been to this fishery, it is capable of consider- 
able development although the merchants say the shells 
are soft under the saw and inferior both in colour and in 
hardness to Tuticorin shells. 
This fishery was used by the Tuticorin chank fishers 
in 1900 as a lever whereby to extort better terms ; in this 
year they struck work at Tuticorin and proceeded to 
Travancore to fish on their own account. The manceuvre 
was successful, and the rate being raised, they returned 
to Tuticorin and resumed work. 
(5) SATHIAWAR FISHERY. 
The shells fished off this coast are of good 
quality, well esteemed in the Bengal trade where they 
are known as Surti shells—an echo of the day when Surat 
was the great emporium of the Kathiawar and Konkhan 
coasts. To-day the shells are sent to Bombay, whence 
they are shipped to Calcutta, The quantity yielded is 
approximately 200 bags per annum. 
Okhamandal, the north-western extremity of Kathia- 
war, which forms an outlying portion of the Gaekwar of 
Baroda’s dominions, furnishes a considerable proportion 
of this export. The right to collect the shells is leased 
Out at intervals for a term of years, the proceeds for 
the five years ending 1906 amounting to an average of 
Rs. 151 perannum. Unlike other Indian chank fisheries 
the shells on this coast are all collected at spring tides 
when great areas of the littoral are uncovered at the 
time of low water. A certain proportion of the shells 
are sold to pilgrims who resort to the holy shrines at 
Bét and Dwarka, the district of Okhamandal from its 
association with Krishna forming one of the chief holy 
lands of the Hindus, who delight to take home as a 
sacred souvenir, one of the shells loved of this god. Full 
details of this fishery and of the enactments made to safe- 
guard it, are to be found in Part I of my “ Report to the 
Government of Baroda on the Marine Zoology of 
Okhamandal in Kathiawar,”. London 1909. 
