82 
A variable proportion of grade No. 9 (between 23 
and 21 inches in diameter) is added to the bags as the 
cutters object to any large proportion of this grade, on 
account of the difficulty of utilizing any large number of 
bracelets of such small diameter. No shells under No. 
9 (24 inches diameter) are mixed with the assorted sizes ; 
these smallest size shells are kept separate and sold 
apart from the others. 
Shells wormed on the larger whorls are also excluded 
from the bags, but if the apex only be slightly affected 
no objection is made to inclusion as this part is of no 
value, being smashed in prior to slicing up the shell. 
The present tendency is towards enhanced prices 
partly because of competition actual or threatened, and 
partly because of the increasing prosperity of the chank 
bangle industry. The former cause is fortuitous and 
may be transitory, the latter substantial and giving pro- 
mise of continuance owing to an increased demand 
for chank bracelets by the better class Hindu ladies of 
Bengal. The Bengal Swadeshi movement has been 
the principal factor as the people were asked to discon- 
tinue the use of foreign-made glass bangles (almost all 
made in Austria) and to resume the wearing of chank 
bracelets according to the custom of their ancestors. A 
second factor of considerable and increasing force is 
the marked advance in the artistic quality of the brace- 
lets turned out. Some firms produce beautiful and har- 
monious designs, infinitely more artistic and pleasing to 
the eye than any of the gaudy glassware imported from 
Europe. The higher caste Hindu ladies who a few 
years ago were rapidly discarding chank bracelets as 
regular adornments fit only for the use of low caste 
people, are resuming the habit, a change due undoubt- 
edly to the Swadeshi movement reinforced by an 
increase of skill and taste on the part of the more enter- 
prising firms. 
The first distribution of shells made from Calcutta is 
effected at an enhancement of price approximately equal 
to 40 per cent. upon that paid to Government at Tuti- 
corin. Shells bought at 100 per 1,000 are sold at the 
Calcutta godowns, at not less than Rs. 14 per 100 or 
Rs. 140 per 1,000. Excluding interest upon capital 
locked up, this gain of 4o per cent. may be said to be 
